


Changing Fate

by Fmfan1980



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Drama, F/F, F/M, Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2018-10-31 00:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 53,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fmfan1980/pseuds/Fmfan1980
Summary: Willow came up with a plan to send one person back in time to change the future. All so that the end of the world as she experienced could never come to pass. And the person being sent back was her best friend's sister, and the woman she loved; Dawn.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, locations or plots from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is just a work of fiction which has only been able to come into being because of the universe that Mr. Whedon's created.

**The Year 2021.**

Willow looked into the eye of the short haired brunette lying beneath her; the redhead caressed the woman's scarred cheek, and then brushed her fingertips on her forehead, and then along the scar that was visible from under the eye-patch. It had been nearly ten years since the end of all things, and all Willow wanted to do now was make love to the woman she was looking down at that moment in time.

The woman looked back up at Willow with longing and a great sadness, all while running the redhead's bare back while her other hand held onto her hip. Willow looked into the woman's eye as their hands roamed all their naked bodies while they were lying in a tent within an underground cave system just outside of the city that used to be Sunnydale.

The event that came to be known as 'The End of All Things' needed to be prevented from taking place. Willow and the woman lying under her, the sister of her dead best friend, worked together and travelled far and wide under the cover of powerful magics to search for a spell. A very special spell that was supposed to be capable of transporting one person back through time.

And eventually they found it in the remains of a magic shop in what used to be the magic underground, an area of London that used to cater to witches and magical beings that once existed. Once they found it, the couple returned to Los Angeles where they met with Riley Finn in an underground base built decades ago by the Initiative. Willow and several witches warded the base so that the being responsible for the End couldn't find them.

At least not until the last moment since the spell was going to be too powerful to hide. The wards gave them more than enough time to plan for the final phase- a journey through underground tunnels to the outskirts of the Sunnydale crater.

"A series of events led to the coming of the End," said Dawn as she looked up at Willow and caressed her cheek, "and you're sending me to the beginning."

"Yeah," Willow said as she stared at the young woman below her, "once you change the past… once you step into the past, you will create another branch of time. At least that's one theory; this timeline will exist but…."

"I'll be in an alternate timeline," Dawn finished as tears welled in her eyes; tears that Willow wiped away. The redhead then looked the tears on her finger, and then brought her finger to her lips and kissed it. Willow closed her eyes and felt a lump rising in her throat as she thought about the woman underneath her; a woman she fell in love with thanks to their circumstances.

"Or you could go back in time, and this timeline would change once you make the first aberration. Either way, you have no way of coming back here." Willow whispered shaking her head while keeping her eyes closed, "and I'll lose three people that I've ever loved. Tara, Kennedy, and then you."

"I know that we're supposed to start the ritual in twelve hours, and I know we have all these Marines and army guys helping us with this mission," said Dawn as the hand that had been roaming around Willow's body was gently placed in the back of Willow's head, "I just want to forget all that for now. Can… can…. can we have right now? Can this be just about us tonight?"

"I love you," Willow whispered as Dawn tightened her hold on the back of her head, and pulled her down. Dawn kissed her, and Willow returned the kiss as a gold shimmer rose up and covered their tent in a sound-proof dome. The military personnel who accompanied them knew this was the last mission they would ever go on, but it was something they needed to do to change their future. All of them were coming to terms with their mortality in a new age following the End. But none of them heard the panting, moans, screams, and squeals of delight under the golden dome as Willow and Dawn lost themselves in each other.

**Sunnydale Crater, year 2021.**

Dawn, wearing a sleeveless shirt and torn jeans with a handgun holstered to the belt on her right hip, was surrounded by a blue light as a purple haze swirled in front of her. She heard Willow to her left chanting while being surrounded by over three hundred Marines and soldiers. They were firing their weapons at the demons coming towards them; demons that crawled, slithered, and walked high on two feet. They were much worse than the demons Dawn had encountered before. In fact, these new demons crushed the demons that were native to this dimension into dust. Dawn looked up at the red sky and watched new flying demons, nearly a thousand, coming at them while releasing roars that shook her bones.

She then heard screams from the soldiers and Marines. Dawn turned around and watched the men and women assigned to protect them get cut to ribbons. She then turned her head and stared at Willow whose eyes were now jet black… as was her hair

"Willow!" Dawn yelled as the redhead looked at her while the military personnel protecting them were being torn apart, "come with me. Please, we can have a life; you and me. We'll change the future and we can have the life we want!"

"Baby, I already told you; this spell sends one person back to the past! I need to hold the door open, and then seal it shut from this side after you go through to make sure no one could ever make it through again! Now, GO!" Willow screamed as she pulled more of Earths magic, at least the magic she could still access, into her while stabilizing the purple haze. Just as the last soldier fell, Willow used all her power to focus the swirling haze until it opened a breach. She then turned to Dawn, "I love you, Dawn. Now go! I can't hold it for long. GO!"

Willow saw the young woman hesitate for just a second. For the red head, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as she screamed at Dawn to run into the breach. In the meantime, Willow remembered the time she spent together with Dawn after Kennedy's death. Dawn had always been there for her, and the redhead was there for Dawn when the young blonde woman's sister was torn apart by the new demons. It was something she never thought would have happened if not for the tragedies they faced.

Willow wanted Dawn to be safe. She wanted her to have a new life. "Earth's magic is already corrupted. You know what needs to be done, baby. You know why you're going back; to save all of us. The breach will take you to kinda close to Buffy right before the portal forms. You'll have anywhere between twenty to thirty minutes to get to where it happened. Just enough time to get to where she died. I'll send you close to the Hellmouth, and then you…. ughh!"

Before Willow could continue, there was a sharp pain in her gut. The redhead looked at the wide eyed Dawn whose face twisted in anguish, and then, to see why she was so upset, Willow looked down her body. Her eyes were met with the sight of a blood covered, clawed hand that went through her chest. She looked back up at brunette who was screaming in anguish. Willow then whispered, 'go', before mumbling another spell… even while life was leaving her body, even while blood was trickling down the sides of her mouth as a demon roared from behind her… to close the doorway for all time.

Dawn saw demons rush past the one horned demon who raised Willow into the air. Despite her wanting to stay, Dawn knew that Willow was right.. going back in time was the only way to prevent their future from happening. IT was the only way to prevent the dimension known as Twilight from taking over. Staring at each other, Dawn then whispered a final goodbye before she jumped through the breach.

With the breach now closed shut, Willow stopped mumbling the spell, and let a smile develop on her face as she saw Buffy, Xander, and Giles looking up at her. She smiled at the original Scoobies as the last bit of her life-force was leaving her body.

"I'm coming, guys. And Buf… Buffy? Don't… Don't be mad at me. I lov… lov… her." Willow whispered as Buffy, Xander, and Giles reached out for her just as her body was ripped apart.

**Sunnydale High, 11:00pm; year 2001.**

Dawn fell from the portal to the front lawn of the destroyed Sunnydale high. She rolled forward as the breach closed behind her before getting to her feet. She checked her body for injuries and the, pushing her anguish down to the depths of her very soul, the woman ran as fast as she could to the junkyard where the hell god Glory had built a tower. The very tower that she was going to use to bleed Dawn. In fact, it was the demon known as Doc who bled her over the area that would open a special portal.

A portal that led to every single hell dimension. A portal that brought hell to Earth, at least until it was closed after Buffy sacrificed her life. Dawn and Willow, their future selves at least, knew that incident was one of two keys to changing the future.

Dawn ran as fast as she could towards the tower that was already visible in the distance. As she ran, Dawn remembered Buffy dying in front of her eyes after she was torn apart, the leader of the Slayer army was the six hundred and sixty seventh to die that day. Dawn tried not think about it, but that was the day that she went into shock. She didn't move or eat for days while Willow did everything to pull her out of it. Tears welled in Dawn's eye as she remembered Willow, her Willow, who lost Kennedy in an other-dimensional demonic attack several months after Twilight gained a foothold and corrupted the seed of Wonder.

'Six out of seven billion people wiped out in a matter of days,' thought Dawn to herself as she ran. After Kennedy's death, she pulled Willow out of her depression while Buffy was busy leading armies to keep them all safe…. To hold the line until a plan could be devised.

But the older Dawn's Buffy could never see the plan put into action. A plan that was crazy; a plan that was now on the verge of success. Already at the entrance to the junkyard, Dawn looked up and saw her younger self tied to two posts on either side. She then took out her weapon and chambered a round before holstering it again, all while she watched a crowd of people who had their mental energy sucked out by Glory, together with her minions, be pushed to either side by an unseen force. She knew Willow, the younger Willow, used her magic to create a path for Spike who was now running up the metallic stairs of the tower to the platform at the top. Taking a deep breath, Dawn then rushed out into the junkyard and ran past the fallen minions and the other mentally unsound humans.

Out of the corner of her eye, as she ran up the stairs, the older Dawn caught sight of Willow and Xander who were looking up at the platform from behind cover. Dawn's heart lifted at the sight of the younger Willow, but she forced her feelings down as she rushed up the stairs. And when she was almost at the top, Dawn saw Spike thrown off the platform by the demon, Doc.

"Doc!" yelled Dawn as she dashed up the last few steps and then rushed onto the platform. At hearing the older Dawn's voice, Doc turned around and titled his head in confusion. He then turned to the younger Dawn, who stared surprised past the demon as what appeared to be an older version of herself with an eyepatch over one eye.

"This is interesting," Doc said as he turned back around and stared at the older Dawn, "two of you?"

Dawn just stared at the demon as she took a few steps forward before stopping. She glanced at the shocked expression on her younger self's face before glaring at Doc once again. The man had a grin on his face that the older Dawn wanted to pummel. And then, with his head tilted and the grin ever-present, he started to clap.

"Ho ho," the demon chuckled while he clapped his hands together, "I take it you are from an alternate dimension where the great Glorificus…"

"My world is worse for everyone," said the older Dawn as she took another step forward, "including the demons. But I'm not here to explain things to you… I'm here to stop you."

"The great Glorificus will..."

"Buffy's already beaten her," said the older Dawn while the younger version looked down and strained to see Buffy through the grating of the metal platform, "she failed. And now, you'll fail too."

"No, I won't," the demon shook his head before leaning forward and opening his mouth. Thanks to training by Riley, and several other people following the coming of Twilight, Dawn rolled forward on the platform while Doc's tongue darted straight out of his mouth. While Dawn rolled forward, the tongue darted out to where she was standing a second ago. Once she finished her roll, she reached for and took out her gun while Doc's tongue went back into his mouth. Dawn looked up at the older man knowing that she was in range. She couldn't fire earlier since she was afraid a bullet would hit her younger self, but now she could get a point-blank chance. She aimed the gun upwards, her breathing steady, and fired multiple shots into his chest. As she fired, the older Dawn remembered what happening years ago... she remembered Doc cutting her soon after Spike was thrown off the platform; and then she remembered the feeling of blood flowing from her body as Doc looked on while making more cuts.

The younger Dawn screamed as the multiple shots rang out, forcing Willow and the others to look up at the platform in concern. Buffy, having already savagely beaten Glory with Olaf the Troll's hammer, heard the shots as she just stepped onto the stairs. "Dawn!" she screamed as she ran up the stairs. Giles too heard the shots, but he was already in the process of suffocating Ben, Glory's human 'prison'. Once Ben was killed, and thus Glory was killed as well, Giles got up to his feet and rushed out towards Willow and the others while watching Buffy run up the stairs.

As she emptied her entire magazine into the demon's chest, the older Dawn got up to her feet and glared at Doc's darkened eyes as he stared back at her in shock while holding onto his own chest. He tried to stem the flow of blood gushing out of the holes in his chest and the sides of his mouth. As he turned around and stumbled towards the screaming younger Dawn, the older woman recollected Buffy looking into her eyes... she remembered her older sister telling her to live on. Dawn remembered her Buffy jumping off the platform to save the life of everyone. The older Dawn holstered the gun and then rushed forward while she screamed in anger. She then grabbed the demon by the back of his collar before he reached the young Dawn, and then pushed him off the platform. The older Dawn watched the demon fall to the ground before turning to her younger self.

The older woman then rushed to her younger self and started to untie the stunned, and slightly frightened, girl's bonds as she stared at her older self with eyes wide open. "Did he cut you? Did he cut you!?"

"N… no," said the younger Dawn as she stared at the scars on the face of her older self, at least who she thought was her older self, "who.. who…."

"Are you sure, you're not cut?" asked the older Dawn after untying her younger self and then puling her off the edge of the platform and to the other end near the stairs. The older Dawn then turned and patted down her younger self to make sure she wasn't bleeding. "You're not cut…. You're not cut."

The older Dawn stepped back while she stared at her younger self, before looking down at her shaking arms and whispering, "She was right. I…. I'm somewhere else. I…. changed the timeline and… This is… I branched this out into a new timeline."

"Are… are you really me?" asked the younger Dawn as her older self looked back up, just as Buffy screamed her name. "Buffy! I'm okay… I'm okay…"

"What happened? I heard….." yelled Buffy before she stopped talking after laying her eyes on her younger sister, and then what seemed like a very wary, older version of Dawn standing on the other side, "Dawn?"

"She… she saved me, Buffy," said the younger Dawn as Buffy got closer to her while staring at the face of the older Dawn. The Slayer saw tears gathering in the one good eye while her bottom lip trembled.

"You… you're alive, Buffy," the older Dawn said as her voice broke before she placed a hand over her mouth, "you're alive."

"Dawnie?" asked Buffy as the Older Dawn took another step forward before crumbling to her knees and wrapped her arms around the Slayer's waist. The older Dawn then placed her head against Buffy's abdomen and started to sob uncontrollably.

And all Buffy could do was stare at the Dawn she knew, the younger version of the woman holding tight onto her, as they looked at each other with confusion etched on their faces.

TBC.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Junkyard, Sunnydale, 2001.**

Dawn knew that her mission wasn't over yet. She knew that one part of the future had changed and that things had shifted drastically from the future she once knew. She knew that the danger posed by the Trio was still very real, and that was supposed to be her second and final mission; To take the three of them off the board. It was a strategy that she discussed with Willow and Riley, a strategy they agreed with wholeheartedly. Dawn knew that Warren's team-up with Jonathan and Andrew caused all of them pain, and eventually, it caused Warren to kill Tara which in turn lead to the Dark Willow incident. Dawn remembered staring down at her lovers face before she looked away when her dark and evil self was mentioned. Later, Willow agreed that Tara's death would bring about an apocalypse caused by the redhead herself. And then Xander had to save them again.

And then there were the small things that needed to be settled. It was Dawn's own private mission. She told Willow during their last night together that she was going to do everything possible to pull her away from the dark side of the magical world.

**Near the Sunnydale Crater, 2021.**

"I know it's made you who you are," Dawn said as she lay her head on the redhead's heaving chest while Willow ran her hand through Dawn's hair, "but… but I never liked seeing you like that. Remember what happened when you took me to Rack's place?"

"I remember," Willow whispered as she brushed her hand down the sweat covered back of Dawn's neck, and down to the scars on her shoulder blades to the small of her back, "that was my lowest point. Ever. That was the day I hurt you."

"I'm going to kill Warren, Willow," said Dawn as she looked up into Willow's green eyes, "I am going to kill him even if he hasn't done anything yet."

"Just like we agreed, baby," Willow whispered as she then wiped the sweat off Dawn's forehead.

"Seeing you with Tara is going to… well… make me a little jealous," Dawn smirked as Willow grinned. The grin lasted for a few seconds before it vanished after Dawn said that she would never go as far as to interfere in their love-life, "but I'll still be jealous."

"I love you, you know that, right?" asked Willow.

"I know," Dawn said as she leaned down and kissed Willow on the lips for a few seconds before pulling back. She looked at the redhead and her lips trembled before she looked away. Dawn then whispered she was going to see Giles again, "and Xander, Anya, Tara, the younger you, Spike, and… and Buffy. Oh God, Willow, I'm gonna see Buffy again."

"Yes, yes you are, Dawnie," Willow whispered while Dawn giggled.

"I'm going to see Buffy again... I'll stop Buffy from jumping into the portal and… and she'll be alive," Dawn spoke between fits of giggles, as did Willow for the next minute or so until they calmed down, "she'll be alive. When I save my younger self, I… I'm gonna see Buffy again. And.. and I don't know what I'll do, Willow. I have no idea what I'll do."

"You won't know until you get back to the past," Willow said softly.

"I'll hug her.., I know I'll cry like a baby and… and I'll hug her," Dawn whispered, "I'll hold on tight."

"You can tell them about what happened, you know?" said Willow gently as Dawn nodded her head, "maybe you can leave out the fact that we've been in a relationship for the past seven years?"

"I'll never hide that fact," Dawn said as she lay her head on Willow's chest again, "maybe I'll tell Buffy privately and tell her not to tell your younger self and Tara. I mean… that would be weird but… but oh my God can you imagine the look on Buffy's face when she learns that her younger sister, who travelled back in time to save her younger self, is in a relationship with her best friend in the future while my younger self is still fifteen years old. Buffy's head would explode and…"

"And so, don't tell her," smirked Willow, "and honey? What you just said? You're not making any sense."

"I know," chuckled Dawn before she pulled up her head and looked into Willow's eyes once again, "then help me make sense. We still have more time, and I'm not finished with you."

"You're like a rabbit tonight, we were at it for... and I mean really at it, for what? Two hours?" chuckled Willow as Dawn too then giggled out loud, "take it easy, it's not like…."

"We're never going to see each other again?" asked Dawn. The both of them then stopped laughing as a sudden silence fell around them. They knew that this was the final time they would ever spend with each other. They looked at each other before Dawn lay on Willow's body, her head now resting on the nape of her neck. They held each other tight in complete silence while time slowly passed by.

"Look after yourself, Dawnie," Willow whispered, the current situation crashing down on her, "get a new name, make a new life for yourself, and… and be happy. Find someone to love and…"

"I don't think I ever can," Dawn whispered as she lay a hand on Willow's breast, "I… I don't know if I can."

"You will, Dawnie," Willow whispered rubbing the back of Dawn's head, "you will find someone, and you will move on. But first, give Buffy a hug when you see her. Give her a hug for me, Giles, Xander, Faith, Riley… for everyone who died. Give her a hug for all of us and… and keep us with you."

"Always," Dawn whispered as she moved her hand from Willow's breast to her left cheek. They looked at each other while Dawn said, "Always." She then leaned forward and passionately kissed Willow.

**Junkyard, Sunnydale, 2001.**

Just as Dawn told Willow, she was holding on tight to Buffy while sobbing uncontrollably. She looked at the younger version of her sister who shrugged her shoulders before saying that the older Dawn saved her life from Doc.

"Doc was going to cut me if Glory couldn't do it herself," Dawn said as she looked out to the edge of the platform and shuddered as she imagined what could have happened. She then looked at her older self, and then she looked back up at Buffy, "she shot Doc after he pushed Spike off the platform, Buffy."

"But you're not cut anywhere, are you?" asked Buffy as Dawn shook her head before explaining that her older self was thorough when she was patting her down. Dawn then stepped forward while listening to her younger self sobbing, and wondered why she travelled back in time. Dawn wondered if the portal had opened and hell had come to Earth. She looked at Buffy looking back down at the older version of Dawn before wondering if maybe they were part of some resistance movement, 'maybe things were really bad and I travelled back in time to this very moment in time. I guess it could be.'

"Dawn?" asked Buffy as the younger girl looked over at her sister. But then realised she was looking down at her other self. It was then that Dawn realised they needed different names for the both of them as Buffy placed her hand on the short haired woman, and called her name again, "Dawn?"

The older Dawn looked up with tear stained eyes and then lowered her head again before shaking her head and wiping the tears coming from her eye. She then wiped her eye with the back of her hand before getting up to her feet while sniffling.

"Dawnie?" asked Buffy as she looked at her younger sister while thinking to herself, 'or older sister? No… it's definitely Dawn. But what happened? Why the scars and the eye patch, and… and how bad could the future be for her to travel back in time? And then… she.. she said that I was alive. I was alive now which means that… whoa. Am I dead in the future? Does the portal get opened and I do something crazy and then all hell breaks loose and.. well… does Dawn comes back because of that?'

"This.. this place is a bit unstable, Buffy," said the older Dawn while she continued to wipe her tears away from the one good eye, "we… we need to get out of here. You, me, and… well… me." Dawn looked at her younger self and chuckled before looking away, "I'll tell you and the others anything you need to know. Well, at least what I remember."

"The portal opens up, doesn't it?" asked the younger Dawn as the older woman looked at her, "the portal opens? In your future, Doc was successful, wasn't he?"

"He opened the portal," said the older Dawn, "but… but we can take about that later. We need to go to the Magic Box where I can brief you guys. We have a lot to talk about, Buffy… Dawn… we have a lot to talk about."

Buffy nodded her head before she held the hand of the younger Dawn, and then gently pulled her away. The older Dawn followed them down the stairs slowly while listening to the shouts from the bottom by the Scoobies. The older Dawn heard the blonde Slayer yell that she alright, and was coming back down. Then, as the older Dawn reached a landing while Buffy and her younger self walked down the stairs, the older Dawn felt a pain in her chest. Stopping and grabbing the railing while Buffy and Dawn reached the next landing, the older Dawn clasped her chest as she felt her body heating up.

"B… Buffy?" whispered the older Dawn as she fell on one knee while panting. Buffy, hearing the whisper, turned and looked up to see the older Dawn on her knees as an ethereal green glow was covering her body.

"Dawn?" said a worried Buffy as she ran back up the stairs with the younger version of her sister. She then, just as the older Dawn collapsed into the landing with a thud, told the younger Dawn to run as fast as she could to the lower levels and call for Giles to meet them. "Go!"

The younger Dawn looked at her sister holding onto her older self who was staring back at her with pain etched on her face. Dawn watched, for a second, as her older self-twisted her body in pain as a green energy started crackling over her body. Dawn watched her older self grit her teeth while panting before she quickly turned. She then started running down the stairs and yelled, at the top of her lungs, for Giles.

Giles heard the yell as it travelled down the tower, and rushed up past the mentally drained humans who were simply lying on the ground helplessly babbling incoherently, while Glory's minions ran away at the moment of her death. He rushed up the stairs with Willow close behind him. Both Xander and Anya stayed back on the ground level with the still dazed Tara who had her mental energy returned to her thanks to Willow.

"Dawn!" yelled Giles as he rushed up two steps at a time when suddenly there was a blood-curdling scream. A scream that made the younger Dawn stop running and then look back as she heard her older self scream in pain once again while Buffy was yelling for Giles to help them. Her heart racing as the time to use the Key passed, Dawn rushed back up the five levels while Giles was close behind with Willow.

"Buffy!" yelled the younger Dawn as she stopped at the landing looking up at Buffy holding down the body of her older self who continued to convulse. The younger girl watched, just as Giles and Willow rushed up to either side and looked on in wide-eyed surprise at what was happening on the landing above them.

"Giles!" cried Buffy as she looked at her watcher, and then back at the older version of her sister, and back to Giles again, "help me, please. She's…."

A loud guttural sound escaped from the older Dawn's lips as she stopped convulsing, but the green energy crackling along her body increased. The energy increased in intensity while Buffy stared at the young version of her sister, her very frightened sister, and then looked back down at the unconscious woman on the floor of the landing. Buffy rushed back to her feet just as the energy crackling on the older Dawn's body intensified. Buffy ran down the stairs, which were a short distance, down to the lowers landing just as she wrapped her arms around her younger sister. She used her body to shield the younger Dawn as Willow and Giles covered their eyes and looked away when the energy coalesced just above the body before giving off a bright green flash of light.

Once the light faded, Buffy and the others opened their eyes, as did Dawn, and stared at the ball of green pulsing energy that hovered over the older Dawn's unmoving body.

"What's that?" asked Buffy as the younger Dawn felt an attraction to it. She felt as if it was calling out to her before it shot straight down towards the Earth. The others looked over the side of the railing as the ball of green energy shot down past a slowly recovering Spike, and into the Earth. Buffy, Willow, and Giles looked at each other while Dawn slowly walked up the stairs to her older self who was still lying on the landing. Dawn saw her chest moving up and down, and she felt relieved that her older self was still alive.

But she knew there was no mistaking what that green energy ball was.

"That was the Key," said Dawn after she walked up to the third step and looked back at Buffy and the others, "that was the Key."

"But…" Giles said as he stared at the younger Dawn in surprise, and then at the woman lying on the landing as Buffy rushed past him and went up the stairs to the older Dawn while the younger version rushed to Buffy's side and watched as Buffy felt for a pulse. Giles took a few steps up the stairs with Willow and got a closer looked at the injured woman. To him, when he first arrived at the landing and looked up, he thought he had seen an older version of Dawn. But he told himself that it was the light making him see things.

Now, though, as he looked closer, Giles knew it was her. It was Dawn.

And Willow was stunned as well as she rushed up the stairs and stood behind the younger Dawn and Buffy.

"Dawnie?" asked Willow as she looked at the younger girl who looked back at her. She told her and Giles what happened when she was about to be cut by Doc.

"She saved me," the younger Dawn said. "She said she's from the future; I think she said something about an alternate future... but she was mumbling."

"What happened to her?" asked Willow as she looked at the older Dawn's body, and then up at her face and noticed the scars… and the eye patch with the visible scars that crossed the eyebrows. Willow then shook her head before saying that it was very likely that whatever the older Dawn used to travel back in time meant that her timeline splintered off, "but it's not wiped out of existence. I mean it's a wild guess since she's still here. But… I mean I'm at a loss…"

"We'll have to research this phenomenon back in the Magic Box," said Giles while Buffy held the younger Dawn's hand while smoothing out the older Dawn's short hair, "in the meantime, we need to take her to your home, Buffy. Let her have some rest, and then we talk to her. I have a few questions that I'd like answered. Number one, why is she still here if the Key left her system… and we also need to know why it left. And then we need to know why she was sent back in time."

"Whatever happened was bad, Giles," said Buffy as she stared at the older Dawn's scars, "really bad."

**TBC.**

 


	3. Chapter 3

**The Summers house, living room, Sunnydale, 2001.**

Xander, Tara, Anya, and Spike stared in disbelief at the body lying unconscious on the couch in the Summers residence living room. Buffy stepped back from the couch with the younger version of Dawn before reaching out and holding to her younger sister. In the meantime, Giles crouched down and took off his glasses while staring at the scars on the older Dawns face.

"She's our lil-bit alright," Spike said as he remained standing near the foyer at the edge of the couching, sniffing the air while putting his hands in his pockets. He eyed the older Dawn and took in her familiar scent, a scent that was mostly shared with the younger version. However, there were slight subtle difference, he could smell dried blood… blood that was not her own. He stared at her shirt and saw specks from what he believed belonged to Doc. And then there was another scent that he got off her.

The vampire glanced over at Willow who was standing next to Tara, and took in her scent as a comparison. He then looked back at the older Dawn and wondered why she had Willow's scent all over her. Shaking his head while pushing the question to the back of his head and then said, "but wherever she came from? Well, I smell blood… gunpowder… well, they could very well be from the gun she fired and the blood's from Doc."

"You think?" asked Xander sarcastically while Spike stared at him without an expression on his face, before looking back at the older Dawn.

"Dawnie," said Tara standing next to Willow who was keeping her steady, "are you sure that it was the Key leaving her body?"

"Yeah," the young girl said, "I could feel it calling to me. It… It's like there couldn't be two of it in the same place. I mean that's the feeling I got."

"But if her body was created to house the Key," said Willow, "then…" the redhead turned to look at the younger Dawn who pursed her lips in worry. Willow then looked away at the older Dawn and continued, "then how is she still here?"

"The monk said Dawn's human," said Buffy recalling the lasts word of the Monk who died in her arms, "so even without the Key, she would be human. Right? I mean the time to use Dawn's blood came and went. And since the Key didn't leave Dawn's body…" Buffy then nodded at the younger version of her sister, "does that mean that she's still the key or… ok, I think I just confused myself."

"We can't even begin guessing what just happened," said Giles, "the spell the monks used was very complex. At least that is my guess. For now, I can continue my research. This older Dawn is alive and well so we could make the deduction that she is still human. That even if our Dawn loses the Key, she'll still be with us."

"I don't want the Council to know about her, Giles," Buffy said nodding at the older Dawn.

"They won't," Giles said looking down at the older Dawn as he stood up to his feet, "I suggest that one of us stays here in Dawn's room. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, at least she'll be faced with a familiar presence.

"I'll take the first shift," said Giles as he turned back to the older Dawn, and then looked at the younger version. He took in a deep breathe before saying that the young girl needed her rest; that it had been a very long day for everyone. Buffy nodded her head while placing her hands on Dawn's shoulders and telling her that she could share the bed in her room. Dawn sighed before nodding her head as Buffy asked her to go take a shower.

"I'll make some…"

"Buffy?" said a soft voice as everyone stopped whispering and looked at the older Dawn staring back at them through squinted eyes, "Buffy?"

"I'm here, Dawnie," Buffy said as she stepped forward while holding on to her sister's younger-self. She then reached out with her other hand and held the older Dawn's hand, "we're here."

"Thought… thought it.. it was a dream," the older Dawn said as she looked at her sister, "you… you alive."

"I'm alive," said Buffy as she crouched down while the younger Dawn got down on one knee, "I…"

"Giles… alive?" asked the older Dawn as Giles narrowed his eyes before getting into the older Dawn's line of sight.

"I'm here, Dawn," said Giles as he stared at the woman looking back at him, "you're exhausted. You need to sleep, and… and we'll talk when you get…"

"Have… have to know… wasn't dream," Dawn mumbled as she closed her eyes, and then opened her eyes half-way once again.. her face indicating that she was exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep, "Xan… Xander alive?"

"Hey," Xander replied while Anya narrowed her eyes at Xander before the older Dawn looked at her, and then a genuine smile appeared on her face.

"Anya?" asked Dawn.

"Still kicking," Anya said, "so in your future, I'm dead? And so is Giles? Are we all dead? Because if we are then…."

"All dead," Dawn whispered, "all… all gone and… and now… now alive… The End… the End not coming and…"

"Dawn?" asked Buffy as the older woman closed her eyes.

"She's asleep," said Giles after having felt her pulse, "she's only asleep."

"Great, so all of us are dead," Anya frowned.

"I wonder if I'm still there, in the future," Spike said as he looked out into the distance, "a future of death and destruction. Ummm…. Not bad and…" Spike stopped talking when he noticed everyone looking back at him, he the shrugged his shoulders while exclaiming, "it was just a question!"

"Be that as it may," Giles said looking back at the sleeping older Dawn, "I'll stay up to watch over her. I still have some research to complete, and the rest of you needs to get some rest. We won a big victory today, so we deserve it."

"Then tomorrow we deal with how we die," Buffy deadpanned.

"Get some rest, Buffy, Dawn… all of you… get some rest."

**Los Angeles, 2015.**

"So, where are they, little Dawnie?" said the man wearing a leather overcoat over a yellow vest and black tactical trousers. Dawn, who was on her knees on the stone covered ground, had her arms chained over her head to the ceiling, the chain ran along a pully that went back down, and was attached to a far wall. She looked up with gritted teeth as she listened, hiding her fear… pushing it deep down, to screams of pain by twenty-five Slayers who were captured during a daring mission to push back against the End by finally destroying the Seed of Wonder. The Seed was the very reason for the existence of magic in the Earth dimension. And if it was destroyed, just as it should have been in 2011 had Twilight not distracted Buffy by slamming Giles' dead body into her just as she was about to destroy the shining red object; then magic would have been cut off from Earth… and Twilight would have been driven away.

Dawn was there in the underground chamber when Giles' body slammed into Buffy, who was knocked to the ground while the Slayer Scythe fell from her grasp and clattered onto the ground. Back then, Dawn rushed to Buffy who lay injured with her dead mentor draped over her body while Twilight ran for the Seed, and then took it. He then ran out of the underground crypt, leaving Buffy and the others to deal with the dead Giles.

And the fact that the world as they knew it had ended.

That was four years ago. Ever since then, the Slayers, Earth dimension demons, and the military worked together to battle Twilight's demonic hordes. But the Earth defences were quickly ground to dust with hundreds of Slayers, including Kennedy, Rona, Violet, and many others losing their lives in battle in the first year of the resistance campaign again the incursion. Even trying to destroy the Seed was useless since Twilight had completely taken over the dimension. All the survivors could do now was continue the fight. All they could do was resist until their very last breath.

It had been a few days earlier that Dawn and several other slayers were captured during an attack on one of their bases. The wards used to hide the base that housed her resistance cell should have been powerful enough to keep Twilight's armies away; Willow was the one who warded the base after all. When Dawn's cell was taken by surprise, she realized there was a traitor among them. But there was nothing she, or the others, could do as the humans and demons were slaughtered after the hordes invaded the base. Hundreds of men, women, and children under the resistance cell's protection were murdered, hundreds of demons who were on the side of the resistance were killed, as were the military personnel. However, over fifty personnel, including Dawn and twenty five other Slayers were taken for questioning.

And since being captured, Dawn was worried that Twilight may have captured, or killed Buffy. However hearing the otherworldly being in the body of Angel asking about the location of Buffy brought her some relief.

"Where is she, Dawnie?" said Twilight as he looked down at Dawn while walking around her.

"Angel," she said while a door opened to her left and a glowing red demon with one eye walked in on hooved feet carrying a whip in one of its three clawed hands. Dawn stared at the demon who was grinning at her, showing a mouth full of bloodied and sharp teeth, before it then turned to Twilight. Dawn looked away from the demon, and the then at Angel, "Angel, I know you're in there… somewhere. You need to fight, and…"

"Angel is long gone," said Twilight looking down at the young woman while walking over to the demon who handed his them whip. Dawn watched Twilight unfurl the weapon, and noticed the glistening layer of blood on the whip dripping to the floor. She then noticed the nod between the two, and then the demon past her to her rear. Dawn followed the demon with her eyes as she looked back over her shoulder. She saw the demon grab a section of the chain that was attached to the far wall. Dawn followed the direction of the link of the chain up to the pully at the ceiling as her arms got taut. She hissed in pain, her shoulders burning, as her body then started to rise off the floor. She looked back at the demon and saw it pulling at the chain which then pulled on her body. She got to her feet, which touched the floor for a few seconds as her body continued to rise, while listening to the screams of the others slayers in the other rooms. Suddenly the screams were cut off while Dawn was hanging in the air, her body twisting and spinning in place. The demon then locked the chain in place, and walked out, but not before Twilight told it to take out the bodies of the dead Slayers and use them as food for his pets; ravenous vampires that he turned to his cause.

"Dawnie, Dawnie, Dawnie," whispered Angel as he looked at the whip with Dawn continuing to spin around while hanging in place, "where's Buffy? Where's Willow? All your other useless meat bags?"

"Angel," cried out Dawn as he body spun slowly round and round, "fight Twilight. Please."

"I told you Angel is gone!" yelled Twilight as he mentally grabbed Dawn so that she would stop spinning. Dawn stared at Twilight as his eyes started to glow green and he bore his fangs. Dawn's heart raced as she was spun around by an unseen force, her back now to Twilight. And then she heard a crack. She looked over her shoulder while breathing hard as the whip cracked against the ground. She looked up at the enraged face looking back at her. It was yelling at her, demanding to know the location of the rest of the resistance; "Carla's wanted to be with her parents. She approached me during a mission, and I promised her that I would give her parents back to her as long as she gave me the location of her cell. She gave you and your base up, and she's with her parents now."

"You mean she's dead," Dawn hissed.

"So is your resistance cell," said Twilight as the whip cracked against the floor, "now, I'll give you a different deal. You give up Buffy, and you live. You'll be my scribe… you'll write about the end of human history… you'll be witness to the end of humanity itself, and the rise of my demons on this new Earth. You'll be the Great Historian of this new world. You will be held up among all the other demons, you won't be harmed and you'll be free to go where you want. All I want is Buffy. All I want is my mother."

Dawn still remembered the day that Buffy started exhibiting powers that a slayer ordinarily didn't have. It would be much later she and the others would discover that the power increase was being given to her by the universe itself to combat the rising of similar powers in Angel- power that was being given to him by Twilight. The working theory the Scoobies had was that the universe had given Buffy these amazing powers to kill Angel, to prevent Twilight from taking over this universe. However, what happened was that the two lovers consummated their relationship once again; and doing so brought about the apocalypse.

They gave birth to Twilight, pulling it into the Earth dimension. And then, Twilight took full control of Angel who killed Giles, and ran off with the Seed. However, no one knew exactly why Twilight didn't just kill all of them then and there. Spike had a theory that Twilight wasn't all powerful yet, that he would gain full power only when the entirely of the Earth dimension was taken over. In the meantime, Twilight needed to hide the seed until he was completed through.

"I should have tortured her that day! I should have taken her then!" yelled Twilight as he cracked the whip against Dawn's back. She gave off one blood curling scream after another as he whipped her back multiple times. The whip ripped the back of the green and black Army BDU she was wearing and tore her skin. As the whip continued its damage, blood poured from her wounds and dripped onto the formerly dry, cold floor. After whipping her several times, Twilight dropped the weapon and dashed forward. HE grabbed her shoulders as she released another scream of pain, and then turned her around. He watched the tears falling down her cheeks while she cried. He then grabbed the lower part of her jaw, and demanded to know where Buffy was hiding.

"I don't know!" cried Dawn who felt that she was going to faint from the pain. The truth was that each cell was supposed to operate independently without knowing the location of the other cells, Buffy told her sister where she was located; her idea was that separated, they stood the best chance of surviving… that if one of them dies, the other would keep on going. And Dawn was doing everything she could to fight her pain and the part of her mind telling herself to reveal the truth to Twilight so that she could survive. But Dawn pushed that away, there was no way she was betraying her sister. "I don't know!" sobbed Dawn once again. However, the enraged Twilight locked his jaw before leaning forwards and screaming into her face.

"You will protect Buffy no matter what! Where is she!" While he was screaming, Twilight used the thumb on his other hand and pushed it down into Dawns left eye socket. He pushed into the eyeball, crushing it, and then the thumb continued inwards while Dawn was gasping for breath while her body and legs were flailing wildly. The brunette then released a loud scream from the depths of her very soul as blood poured down her cheek while Twilight laughed as he continued pushing his thumb further inwards. He then pulled his thumb out of the eye socket, and licked the blood and other slimy liquid while using a finger nail in his other hand to cut the girl's cheek. HE then leaned forward and licked the blood while Dawn sobbed loudly, about to pass out form the pain.

"Tell me where she is, Dawnie," said Angel as she looked at his through the one, tear stained, good eye, "Where. Is. She?"

Dawn continued to sob while shaking her head as her legs continued to flail around because of the pain. Twilight continued to ask the same question for a few more seconds before he gave in to his rage and wiped his sharp fingernails along the empty eye socket. She screamed in pain as her skin was slashed off before he violently dug his thump into her empty socket and wiggled it around. She continued to scream in pain while he demanded to know Buffy's location.

Just as he asked that question for the second time while Dawn was screaming out in pain, there was a massive explosion as Twilight's castle shook violently. Twilight pulled back as Dawn sobbed from the intense pain going through her skull before he turned towards the door and smiled at the sound of weapons fire, grunting, yelling, screaming, and thuds.

"Dawn!" the Key heard Buffy yell over her sobs of pain, "I'm coming! I'm coming!"

**Summers Residence, 0600 hours; 2001.**

Dawn snapped her eye open and immediately felt herself lying on a soft material while covered in a blanket. She slowly removed the blanket while using her other hand to rub her forehead. In a state pf grogginess, the older Dawn slowly sat up while looking around and saw Giles sleeping on an armchair that was shifted to face her.

There was a book on his lap, as well as various other books on the floor all around the floor. Dawn managed a small while she wiped her right eye with the back of her hand, and then slowly stood up. She made sure the patch was still covering her left eye before she turned around, picked up her blanket, and then took it to the sleeping Giles. She lay it over him before taking off his glasses and then placing them on the side table. Dawn then stepped back and closed her eye as she remembered Twilight snapping Giles' neck.

She opened her eye one more time, her breath steady, before walking to the mantle and looking at the pictures as memories started to flood back of happier times back in her own timeline. She then turned back to Giles, and then she turned towards the foyer and stared at the stairs. Dawn took in a deep breath, and made her way to the bottom of the stairs and then walked up the stairs. Trying to make as little noise as possible, she reached the top of the stairs and headed for Buffy's room.

She then slowly opened the door, and peeked in to see Buffy sleeping with her younger self. It was then, as she pulled the door closed slowly, that the elder Dawn remembered Willow smashing through the door and calling for Buffy while her eyes were wide open in shock and horror at the brunette's state. Dawn, through her tears and the pain stabbing through her head, watched Willow's eyes and hair just jet black as Twilight dashed towards her. She mumbled a spell that flung him through the walls of his dark castle while Buffy rushed past the witch.

"Dawn!" she yelled as Willow magically cut the chains just as Riley and several other soldiers arrived saying that there were demonic reinforcements on the way, and that they needed to leave.

Back in the present day, the older Dawn sighed, closed the door slowly, and then walked towards what used to be her room It was there that she saw Xander and Anya sleeping on her bed. She smiled before closing the door at having both of them stull alive, and then walked towards the other door at the end of the hallway. She reached for the door knob with a shaking hand while imagining the two people on the other side of the door.

However, at the last moment, the older Dawn pulled her hand away and took a step back.

Dawn couldn't bear to see Willow and Tara sleeping together since the wound of losing her lover was too raw. Dawn stepped back and turned around before walking back to the stairs. Grabbing the banister, the former Key started to make a mental note of what she needed to do next to prevent her future from happening.

'Find Warren and the Trio, and take care of them,' she thought to herself as she slowly walked down the stairs. 'and that'll prevent my future from happening. That'll make everything better. But there other things. Other things that can be done. Smaller things that can be stopped. Willow's addictions, Jasmine, and… so many things. Anyone can bring the end.'

Dawn reached the bottom of the stairs, and then turned left into the dining room. She walked slowly through the room taking in the scent in the air of vanilla as she moved to the kitchen. She looked around, a lump growing him her throat as she imagined the house in her timeline lying underneath millions of tonnes of rumble. Dawn opened the back door, and stepped out into the warm breezy morning. She walked on the porch towards the railing, and then leaned down while looking out at the back yard with a small smile on her face.

Closing her eye, she took a small breath and whispered to herself, "I'm home, Willow. I'll change things. And I'll protect you." Dawn imagined kissing the Willow she once knew before opening her eye again and looked down at the grass.

Things were going to change.

TBC.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**The Summers Home.**

Walking back in to the house, Dawn closed the back door behind her and then brushed her fingers on the surface of the kitchen island as she walked past. She then left the kitchen, and entered the dining room while the scent of vanilla continued to waft through the room. She looked at the candle on the far table, and knew it was coming from there. She took in the scent which was far better than taking in the odour of blood on the battlefield. She then walked past the dining table, and into the foyer while still in the same clothes she was wearing for the past several hours.

She had no idea if any of her old clothes would fit since she was a little taller than when she was a teenager, and she looked down at herself before mentally telling herself she was more developed than she was back then. Sighing, the older Dawn then looking into the living room to check in on Giles who was still snoring. A smile on her face, Dawn opened the front door slowly and walked out onto the porch to see her old neighbourhood once again.

And it was full of people. It was full of life as the leaves on the trees rustled in the gentle breeze while people were waking up. There were some cars that were being driven back down the driveways and onto the main street. While there were other houses where the lights were just starting to come on, and she could see the silhouettes of people moving about behind curtains.

Dawn looked around while leaning on the railing and wondered where her gun wan. Actually, it wasn't her gun, it was really Riley's nine-milimeter, it was given to her as a gift so that she could defend herself. 'Buffy's probably keeping it in the basement.' Dawn shook her head and turned around upon hearing gentle footsteps coming down the stairs. She heard a whispered voice calling her name upon stopping at the foyer before the door opened.

And Tara's head peeked out at her.

And Dawn's memory immediately flashed back to the day she found the body of her own Tara lying on the carpet in a pool of blood.

Dawn was then brought out of her memory by Tara's voice, "Hi, Dawnie," Tara said as she opened the door and stepped out onto the porch while a robe wrapped around her body. She closed the door behind her while Dawn shift he r gaze away as she remembered the very first kiss she shared with Willow. Dawn closed her eyes while Tara asked if she was alright, her voice tinged with concern.

"Yeah," Dawn shook her head while telling herself that she was going to have to sacrifice any life she could have with the Willow of this reality by preventing Tara's death at the hands of the Trio. Dawn looked at Tara, and smiled before taking a few steps forward and hugging Tara tight. While thinking about Willow bringing her back from a near catatonic state following Buffy's violent death, Dawn whispered into Tara's ear, "I love you, Tara."

As for Tara, she held to Dawn tight, surprised at how sad the older Dawn seemed to be; along with a sense of relief that was coming off her. The blonde witch wondered about the mixture of emotions but, for now, she held on tight to Dawn. It would be a few seconds later that the older Dawn pulled back and reached down to hold Tara's hand before whispering that she was going to protect her.

"Dawnie?" asked Tara as she looked at the seriousness in Dawn's eye.

Dawn knew that what she had to tell Tara would change the future. She knew that being in the past already changed the future, but preventing Tara's death would prevent Willow from going down into depths of despair. Dawn knew by changing thing that Willow would never become who Andrew referred to as Dark Willow; however, not being Dark Willow would mean that her former lover never gained a proper respect of her powers. The older Dawn knew that she would have to push events in another way, but either way she would lose Willow to Tara. And the older Dawn loved both of them with all her heart.

And it was a sacrifice worth making.

'I have my memories of you, Willow,' thought Dawn to herself remembering embracing Willow who brought her out of the catatonic state following Buffy's gruesome death. 'I love you in my memories, I love you in my heart.'

"If you had a chance to change the future, would you?" asked the older Dawn as she looked at Tara, "if you knew what was about to happen, if you knew that if you didn't prevent what could happen in the natural course of events then the world would end, would you still change it?"

"I…."

"I would," Dawn said as Tara narrowed her eyes in confusion. Dawn stared at the confusion on Tara's face and still continued, "I would sacrifice everything to prevent that future from happening Tara. I would sacrifice the people I loved in my future to prevent that… that hell from happening."

"Dawnie," Tara held on to Dawn's shoulders, "what happened?"

"We lost so many things, Tara," said Dawn shaking her head before looking away, "so many people… lost. But.. but its better if everyone hears it at once." She then looked back at Tara's face, "but I will protect you. I promise. I'll make sure you, Buffy, my younger self, Willow, and everyone else is safe and.. and you don't go through the same hell I did."

"Didn't you coming back in time already change things?" asked Tara gently as Dawn looked away. Dawn knew that Tara was right; coming back to the past and preventing Buffy's death could have very well changed the future. But Dawn also knew that she couldn't take that change. She remembered how she felt when Tara died… when she found Tara's body in the latter's room. Dawn remembered sitting close to the dead body so that she wasn't alone… and she remembered Willow's reaction.

"I can't take the chance, Tara," Dawn whispered looking back at her.

"Dawnie," whispered Tara as she placed a hand on her cheeks, "we're safe, and…"

"Can.. can you make me some of your pancakes?" asked the older Dawn as Tara tilted her head and knitted her eyebrows at the change of subject, "I… the last thing I ate were Army rations that Riley gave us before we left Los Angeles for Sunnydale. And those tasted horrible. I.. I'd like your funny shaped pancakes."

"Su.. sure," Tara said before a smile formed on her face while stroking the side of the older Dawn's face, "how about you take some of my clothes since, well, I don't know if your old clothes with still fit you. Willow should be still asleep and… well, she's a deep sleeper and…"

"Maybe you could get me something to wear while I start off the batter?" asked the older Dawn. Tara then nodded her head before she and Dawn headed back into the house. They walked in, and then closed the door behind them before Tara walked up the stairs while Dawn headed for the kitchen via the central hallway next to the stairs. The older Dawn heard Tara's footsteps from upstairs as she entered her and Willow's room while Dawn entered the kitchen. She couldn't help but think, with a little bit of resentment despite what she thought to herself earlier, 'Willow's almost impossible to wake up unless you… well… I know her secret, Tara. And I'll keep that with me.'

And almost immediately Dawn felt bad for being resentful of Tara. She then shook her head while telling herself that Tara probably knew that Willow was ticklish behind her knees. Dawn then started taking out and preparing the ingredients as she remembered helping Kennedy and Violet make breakfast for the Potential Slayers when they were in Scotland- the headquarters of Buffy's Slayer Army. Dawn wondered about Faith, and the fact that if she changed the future, then the dark-haired Slayer would remain in prison for the rest of her life.

'What happened with that thing called the Beast is what made Wesley free Faith,' thought Dawn to herself, 'will that still happen? Let's see now, the year is… oh, ok, 2001 so Conner's not born yet. But Darla should be out there somewhere if I remember what Buffy told me. Conner is the Key to jasmine… so… yeah, find Darla, who should be human, then kill her so that Conner is never born, and then find Cordelia. If she's killed then she's not the vessel for Jasmine, then… well, then the world is safe from another crazy wannabe god.' Dawn then shook her head while mentally asking herself if she was willing to do everything she was thinking.

'Yeah.' she thought to herself while, at the same time, berating herself. She placed her hands on the island in front of her which all the ingredients were laid out and stared at the box of flour, 'listen you yourself. These are your friends, and… and you're thinking about killing them as if they don't matter, and…'

'They don't matter,' another part of Dawn told herself, 'I'm talking about preventing one apocalypse after another. I'm talking about preventing the end of the world, about not sending L.A to hell, the First being prevented from manifesting, and then there's Twilight. If I can somehow get rid of Angel, then… then no Twilight. So I have to do whatever I can to prevent that future.'

Dawn then sighed before shaking her head and looking away, 'and then there's Spike. Buffy loved him back in my future, but… but he'll rape her. He'll hurt her and… and that'll hurt me. Something has to be done, something. Something.' Sighing once again, Dawn then looked at the ingredients again and reached for the eggs.

While Dawn was breaking the eggs, she thought about Amy and the trouble she had cost everyone. Dawn knew that in the past, in this time period, Amy was just a rat. A literal rat. 'She would be so easy to kill. Snap her neck and that's it. Ummm.. maybe there's a place that sells rats? I'll replace her with that rat?' Dawn chuckled at herself before she looked down at the eggs and sighed.

She put Amy the rat in her mental list of potential dangers. She then added Darla, Cordelia, Conner, and Angel into her mental list. Hearing footsteps coming down the stairs, Dawn formed a smile as she looked up at Tara walking back into the kitchen with a set of clothes.

"It's not much, but…"

"Thanks," Dawn replied. Tara handed the older Dawn some new clothes, who looked down and stared at the blue blouse in her hands. Dawn's eyes were wide open, her breathing shallow, before she looked back up when a concerned sounding Tara asked if everything was alright. Dawn stared at her, not knowing how to tell the blonde witch that the blouse in her hand would be the same blouse that Tara would be shot in a little than a year away.

"Dawnie?" asked Tara knitting her eyebrows as she sensed sorrow coming off the older Dawn, "I can get.. get you something else, and…"

"This.. this is fine," lied Dawn as she stepped back, unsure if she should just take up Tara's offer. Dawn abruptly turn and started to walk away while Tara looked on before stopping after she had walked around the island and they were facing each other. Dawn looked up at Tara and her heart broke; seeing her again made the former Key look back down at the blue blouse and shake her head.

"Dawnie?" asked Tara.

'I can't take the blouse... I…' thought Dawn to herself before she looked away from the blouse and then looked back at Tara once again, 'I can't tell her, I can't tell her what happens to her. If.. if I do, then she'll stop me from doing what I need to do. Buffy will stop me, Giles will stop me. I don't know about Xander or Anya, but I know that my younger self would want me to stop Warren at any cost. When she knows the truth, she'll want me to stop him at any cost.'

Dawn looked back down at the blouse and then thought to herself that she had to take the blouse or else Tara would get suspicious.

"Thanks, Tara," Dawn said, "I'll change and then wake the others up. We.. we need to talk. All of us."

The older Dawn could feel Tara's staring at her in confusion as she walked away through another hallway, and then to the stairs. She walked up to the second floor while wiping tears that gathered in her eyes as she walked up the stairs to the second floor. She turned and headed for the rest room while she stared at the blue blouse in her arms as memories of Tara lying in a pool blood rushed into her mind. A chill went up her spine as she recalled rushing to the dead body, kneeling next to it, and then placing her hands on Tara's shoulder. Dawn opened the door as she recalled the witch shaking but there was no response before Dawn stumbled bac and sat in the corner. Dawn remembered being stunned at the still body, and made a conscious decision to stay with the body.

She didn't want Tara to be alone.

Dawn placed her hands along the edge of the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her good eye was already red with welled up tears. She looked away, pushed herself off the sink, and took off the patch that covered her left eye. She pulled the mirror in front of her and gained access to the medicine cabinet where she placed the patch. After closing it once again, Dawn stared at herself in the mirror and watched as he hair hung in front of her scarred, and closed, eyelid to barely cover it. She then took in a deep breath and shook her head.

Slowly taking off her sleeveless shirt, Dawn then stared at the scar on her cheek and then turned to star at the faint traces of scars on her back from the whipping. She then stepped into the shower and closed the curtain before turning on the tap. Dawn felt the water streaming along her body after the stream from the shower hit her skin, the warm water causing goosebumps to erupt as she wiped her face and then ran her hand through her wet hair.

Dawn then took the rose scented body wash into her hands and then started to soap herself. She took in the scent of the rose essence and smiled. It definitely beat the odour of blood that had been wafting in the air back in her future.

While the older Dawn was talking a shower, back in her room, Buffy was awake and holding onto her younger sister.

Many questions raced in her mind, especially what happened to the older Dawn, 'and how old is she? What changed in the future to get her so… so…' Buffy tried to think of a word as she lay on her side while holding on to the younger Dawn, 'so hard. Is that the right thing?' It would be a few minutes later that she smelled coffee from the kitchen. Buffy kissed the fore head of her younger sister and then slowly got onto her back before twisting her body and laying her feet off the edge of the bed.

Taking another breath, she finally took in the fact that Glory was dead. Giles told her the previous night that Ben had suffered more injuries than any of them were aware, and he died. To Buffy, the threat of Glory coming after Dawn again was gone for good.

Buffy turned her head and stared at the still sleeping Dawn before getting off the bed, and then stretching her arms over her body while yawning. Buffy then straightened out her shirt before opening the door to her room, and walking out into the hallway. She then stared at the rest room door and heard the shower turn off before walking past it and then down the stairs to the living room. The Slayer could see that the couch was empty, and that Giles was still asleep.

The Slayer walked towards Giles, and then poked his shoulder with her finger. The older man then stirred while mumbling at no one on particular to leave him alone. Buffy chuckled before she looked at the empty couch and remembered the older Dawn sleeping there. She then shook her head and walked to the kitchen where she heard Tara humming.

"Hey," Buffy said after walking into the kitchen while Tara cracked some eggs. "You're going to wake everyone up."

"Dawn's up.. I mean the older Dawn," Tara said with a small smile on her face, "she asked if I could make some pancakes."

"You talked to her?" asked Buffy as she sat on a stool and folded her arms on the surface of the island in front of her. Tara nodded her head as Buffy looked at the entrance to the kitchen and then asked Tara if she believed Dawn, "what feeling did you get?"

"A lot of pain, Buffy," Tara said gently as she whisked the batter, "sorrow mixed with anger, but mostly sorrow. I mean if we're all dead from whatever happened then… well, I guess that…"

It was then that the two of them heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Buffy and Tara looked at each other, the former able to tell that Tara had a lot to say about the older Dawn. Buffy turned her head as the older Dawn walked in with a skirt that ended between her ankle and knees, and a blue blouse.

"Thanks, Tara," the older Dawn said before she turned to Buffy, and then walked towards her.

"Hey," Buffy whispered getting off the stool as she stared at the scar and the patch while reaching out for her younger sister, "you alright?"

"With you guys here?" asked Dawn as she took another step forward and held Buffy's hand, "yeah, I'm going to be alright. But… but we need to talk Buffy. All of us need to talk."

TBC.

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summers Home, 0645 hours.**

The older Dawn helped Tara with fixing up breakfast while Buffy rushed back up the stairs after she told the blonde Slayer that all of them needed to talk. But after breakfast, since Dawn was really hungry.

Drinking coffee while helping Tara, the older Dawn continued to glance at the younger woman; the very woman that the older would see lying dead on the floor of her room a year later.

With a stack of pancakes now ready to be eaten, the first one to be awakened was Giles; who walked in groggy after hearing the 'clinks' of plates being moved around, the smell of coffee, and the sizzle from the cooking of pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

"This is quite a spread for breakfast," Giles said, impressed, as he looked at the island and then watched the older Dawn bring down three boxes of cereal. He then rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands while Dawn placed the boxes of cereal on the kitchen island.

"Dawn's hungry," Tara said as she placed another pancake on the stack of twenty before going back to the stove. Tara then placed some batter on the pan and, while the batter sizzled as it spread on the heated surface of the pan, turned to walked towards the older Dawn. While Dawn poured milk into a large bowl of three different kinds of cereal mixed together, Tara lay an arm around her shoulders, "she's all grown up and needs her strength."

"And the last thing I ate was Army rations," Dawn said before she put a spoonful of cereal and milk into her mouth. She chewed, and then swallowed while her eyes were closed as she felt the cold mush go down her throat. She released a moan as the cold seemed to radiate throughout her body before opening her eyes and then staring at the bowl of cereal in her hand.

Smiling, Dawn then looked up and smiled at Giles and Tara who were waiting for her to continue. In the meantime, Dawn looked over at Tara and thought to herself before looking away back at the bowl of cereal, 'well, technically that wasn't the last thing I ate.' Dawn then released a chuckled as she thought about what she and Willow were doing in the tent before the push to the Sunnydale crater. She then took another bite before looking over at Tara and said, "and the rations were really bad."

"How bad did it get in your future?" asked Giles as he poured himself a cup of coffee after Tara kissed Dawn's cheek and then rushed off to the stove to flip the twenty-first pancake.

"Really bad," Dawn said looking at Giles and remembered Twilight snapping his neck. Dawn then looked away and put another spoonful of mixed cereals and milk into her mouth. She chewed while wondering if it would be a good idea to tell the two of them about Willow before the others arrived.

Dawn knew that if there was anyone who could prevent Willow from abusing her powers, it would be Giles and Tara. Dawn then swallowed the food she was chewing and then put down the bowl on the island and sat on one of the stools.

She looked behind the scruffy haired Giles for Buffy, but didn't see her. It was then Dawn heard the restroom door close shut above them and guessed that Buffy would be taking a little longer to come back down the stairs. "Tara, can you sense if Willow's awake?"

At hearing Willow's name specifically, Tara and Giles looked at each other, and then back at the older Dawn.

"Tara?" asked Dawn looking expectantly at the witch. Tara shook her head after sensing for Willow's presence close by, and then told Dawn that the redhead was still asleep.

"But she should be getting up soon, and…."

"It's better that she doesn't hear this now," Dawn interrupted Tara before she took in a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly, "one of the things that happened in my future. One of the things that need to be changed is Willow. I mean… well… her situation."

"Willow?" asked Tara with a concerned looked on her face as she looked back over her shoulder at Dawn. She then turned back to the pancake, and left it up with a spatula and then turned and took a few steps towards the plate on the island. "What situation, Dawn?"

The twenty-first pancake was only just placed on a plate and Tara finished pouring more batter onto the pan. Following the sound of the sizzle as the batter hit, and spread, on the surface of the pan, Tara then turned and looked back at Dawn who nodded her head while Giles took a sip of black coffee. "What do you mean her situation? Was she sick in your future, Dawn? Was she okay? Or..."

"Willow started to get into the hard magics," Dawn whispered as Tara stopped talking. She and Giles then looked at each other, and then back at Dawn once again. "I mean she's already begun, right? Tara? You were brain-sucked by Glory."

"Yea," Tara nodded her head.

"Willow used the books in the dark magic section of the Magic Box to use against Glory, didn't she?"

"Yes," Giles said as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew all of this because Willow had told him, in private. But it was something that the younger Dawn didn't know… it was something else that revealed to Giles that the older Dawn in front of him was from the future. Giles then turned to the surprised Tara and gently told her that Willow was doing what she thought best. "In my opinion, she used dangerous magics, but those magics caused Glory pain, and those very magics were the basis for your memories being transferred back to you."

And Tara didn't know what she could say about that. She couldn't be angry at Willow, the redhead saved her from an eternity being trapped in her own mind. But Tara also knew the danger of dark magic causing a 'rush' for any witch.

Even herself.

Tara shook her head and pushed those thoughts of her childhood away, the thoughts of accessing dark magic by accident before she was scolded by her mother.

Instead, Tara turned to Dawn and hoped that her Willow did things differently. That she didn't go down the path that Tara would have if the latter's mother hadn't interfered and trained her in secret.

As if she ready Tara's mind, Dawn gently told he and Giles that, "The timeline's changed, and I don't know if that Willow will develop here. In my timeline, Buffy jumped off the platform, and she died."

"Oh my Lord," Giles whispered as he gently lay down the cup onto the island while Tara flipped the last pancake and then turned off the stove. "Buffy died?"

"Yeah," Dawn said as she remembered that very day as a distracted Tara placed the last pancake on the stack of pancakes on the plate. First, she had to wonder about Willow, and then now she just heard that Buffy died in the older Dawn's future.

"We didn't have her for six months. But… to cut down a very long story, Willow found a spell to return the dead to life by calling on Osiris."

"No," Tara shook her head as her body turned cold at the thought of what Willow could have done, "that kind of a spell is too powerful and… and…"

"I would never have advocated it," Giles said interrupting Tara with disbelief in his voice, "I would have…"

"You left Sunnydale, Giles," Dawn whispered as she turned her head after swallowing another spoonful of cereal, and looked at the surprised Giles. "You left. Giles, there's a lot you need to know. A lot that I want to stop from happening. Before that, I need to tell you what happened. And the first thing you need to know is that you left."

"Even if I did," Giles whispered as he thought about the urge that had been developing for some time to leave for England since he wasn't really needed as a Watcher by Buffy. In the meantime, he continued to speak, "Willow is the most responsible person I know, next to Tara, and…"

"Dawnie, I would never have allowed Willow to…"

"You did, Tara," Dawn whispered as she stared at Tara's stunned look, "you, Xander and Anya had doubts… but you went with Willow because… because we needed Buffy back. We needed a Slayer."

"Good Lord," Giles whispered as he leaned on the island. He started to feel sick as he imagined Willow doing something so risky and dangerous. He then glanced at the stunned Tara who had her hand on her chest and wondered what she had to be thinking. Giles always thought that Tara was level-headed, that she, of all people, would understand the need to let nature run its course. He believed that she, of all people, would advocate that bringing back the dead would be an unnatural act.

But then, Giles realised, they didn't lose Buffy in the here and now.

Dawn did. In her future.

Giles wondered what losing Buffy would have done to all of them. He then turned back to Dawn, and he saw the result standing in front of his very eyes. A living witness to events that could have happened. A witness to what seemed to be a distant future that would begin with such a small action as Buffy dying.

"When she was completing the spell at Buffy's grave, Willow got a taste of power beyond anything she ever experienced," Dawn whispered as she looked at the island while remembering the woman she loved. Dawn gently pushed aside Willow's memory and then looked up at Giles, "after you found out what she did, you were disappointed at her. You called her a rank amateur playing with forces beyond her control."

"And she was," Giles whispered, "bringing back someone from the dead… anything could have happened."

"But that started her downward spiral," Dawn whispered as she remembered the car crash where she was badly injured. Dawn looked back up at Tara, "you did everything you could to teach her responsibility and control, but she didn't listen. She was already getting too powerful and… and you gave her an ultimatum after you found out she did…" Dawn stopped talking when she realised she would be telling Tara and Giles about Willow's spells that changed the former's memories about their fights about the use of magic. Or when Willow wiped everyone's mind. And Dawn changed the subject, "Tara, she did something that made you break up with her."

"What was it?"

"It was bad," Dawn whispered as she looked away from the widened eyes on Tara's face. "At first I was angry at you, I didn't understand why you'd leave Willow.

"What happened?" asked Giles looking at Dawn while he walked over to Tara and placed his hand on her shoulder, "why did Tara leave?"

"It doesn't matter," Dawn whispered. "But Willow descended more after the break-up. Eventually, she found a way to return Amy to her human form. And…."

"Amy?" asked Giles.

"Amy the rat?" Dawn clarified as Tara and Giles stared at each other again. They shared the same thought before the turned back to Dawn, the Willow they knew hadn't reached that level of power yet. It was concerning to the both of them that the future Willow could perform transmogrification.

The both of them then turned back to Dawn who continued to talk, "And then they started practising magic. It.. it was our fault too. None of us said anything." Dawn then grabbed the back of her head as she looked at the bowl before taking another bite of the cereal, "Yeah Buffy, Xander, and Anya talked in private that Willow was doing too much magic, but that was it." Dawn then took in a deep breath and exhaled as her hands let on either side of the unfinished bowl of cereal, "Buffy and Xander thought she'll have self-control, but Anya thought that Willow tasted too much power. But even then, we didn't do anything. Amy even introduced Willow to a black magic supplier, and... and that's when Willow hit rock bottom."

"What happened?" asked Tara as she tried to push away the lump forming in her throat, and the pain in her chest as she imagined things getting even worse for Willow. Giles too looked on and wondered how he could prevent such a thing from happening in the here and now. He knew that without bringing back Buffy from the dead, Willow wouldn't have the feeling for even powerful magics. But that didn't mean it wasn't going to happen eventually.

It was a worry in the back of his mind ever since he could see how powerful Willow was becoming as time went on from when she re-ensouled Angel. She was a natural with the wielding of mystical energy, a natural witch who had the potential to wield unlimited amounts of power.

Someone who was untrained in the use of that power.

Giles knew that he and Tara were both relying on Willow's innate sense of responsibility to know the difference between right and wrong; but now, after hearing what Dawn was saying, he started to doubt himself. Shaking his head, he asked Dawn to continue. He needed to know more.

"We were supposed to go for a movie," Dawn said when they heard another door open.

"Willow," whispered Tara as she looked up, and then back at Dawn.

"She got high on magic, and crashed a car," Dawn whispered, "I was in the car."

"Oh, Dawnie," Tara whispered tilted her head and shook it.

"How badly were you injured?" asked Giles as he narrowed his eyes at Dawn.

"Broken hand, cuts and bruises on my legs," Dawn said as she leaned on the island, "but that changed things. Willow stopped using magic, and eventually got back with you, Tara."

Tara gave a small smile at the thought that she and Willow got back together. They were destined for each other after all, she thought to herself. The three of them stopped talking when they heard footsteps behind them. Dawn, Giles, and Tara looked at each other… the latter two trying to make sense of the revelations as Willow walked in and stood next to Giles while rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

"Hey," Willow groggily said as she shuffled into the kitchen. She turned to Tara who looked back at her. Willow then shuffled towards her with a pout on her face. The both of them then hugged while Giles stared at Tara staring back at him with worry on her face. Tara then closed her eyes and held Willow tight with Giles turning back to Dawn who had gotten off her stool and stood on her feet.

Willow then parted from Tara while saying that the food smelled amazing, and then turned her head to the older Dawn.

"Dawnie," Willow smiled as she rushed to the older woman. The both of them hugged each other tightly.

Dawn wanted to kiss Willow as passionately as she did a month after Willow pulled her out of her catatonic state. Instead, Dawn's chin was placed on Willow's shoulder while her younger-self walked through the door and then looked at the food, and then up at the older Dawn.

Willow parted while Dawn's younger self asked Tara if she could stay home from school since she was suffering a traumatic event from last night.

"No," Giles and Tara said. Dawn then turned her head to Willow who smiled and shook her head. The younger Dawn then turned to her older self just as Buffy walked through the doorway.

"You know what I've been through last night," the young Dawn said as she looked at the older Dawn while Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and stared at both of her sisters, "come on, it was traumatic for the both of us."

"Yea, being held by Glory was traumatic," the older Dawn said as she looked at the wide grin on her younger self's lips. The younger Dawn was about to ask Buffy if she could get an excuse note, but the older Dawn interrupted her younger self, "of course, I had to deal with my Buffy dying." The room had gotten so silent that a pin could be heard dropping as Giles and Tara looked away sadly while Willow, Buffy, and Dawn stared at the older Dawn with surprise on their faces.

Buffy and Dawn suspected something could have happened in the future, such as Buffy dying when she jumped… and the older Dawn alluded to that very fact. But having it confirmed was a punch in the gut. The three of them stared at the older Dawn's face and hoped she was kidding around.

But there was something in her eye that said that this was no joke.

Buffy really did die; she was supposed to die. Willow looked back at Buffy and rushed past everyone to hug her. In the meantime, Buffy stared at the older Dawn while the younger Dawn hugged her as well.

"Who… who looked after you?"

"You made Spike promise to watch over me," the older Dawn said as Giles and Tara looked at Buffy who asked the question, and then at the older Dawn, "Willow and Tara moved in here so that they could look after me too. And the BUffybot was a stand-in for you, Buffy."

"So…."

"I think we should sit down and discuss this after breakfast," Giles said interrupting Buffy, "and after Dawn leaves for school". The older Dawn nodded her head. She knew that the Scoobies needed to know the truth about what happened, at least the major details. The older Dawn then took a deep breath before she looked at her younger self, and wondered what she would have thought had the situation been reversed. But at the same time, the older Dawn wanted her younger self to be able to live her own life, free of her older version's experiences.

**Summers Residence, Living Room, 0930 hours.**

After the reluctant younger Dawn left for school, Buffy and the others headed for the living room where she sat next to the older version of her sister. With their stomach's full, and with a content older Dawn sitting with her back rested against the soft couch cushions, Giles started off by asking Dawn to start from the beginning. Xander and Anya, who woke up only thirty minutes ago, leaned forward and listened while Dawn began.

"It all started with Buffy's death," Dawn said looking at her sister who was sitting next to her and holding her hand. Dawn looked down at their hands clasped together, and then up at Willow and Tara who were hand in hand as they sat on one of the love-seats. Dawn then looked at Giles before continuing as she looked back at the others, and ended at Buffy, "we were without you for six months, Buffy."

"Six months?" Willow asked confused while Anya and Xander stared at each other in equal confusion.

"When you say six months?" Xander asked waving his hands, "you mean… wait… I thought Buffy died?"

"For Six months before Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara brought her back," Dawn said to a stunned Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Anya.

"Wait.. what?" a surprised Willow said, "I… wait… huh? I brought back Buffy from the dead, and…"

"What did you do?" asked Anya with eyes narrowed as she stared at Willow who stared back at Anya while waving her arms.

"I didn't do a thing," she squeaked, "I mean… I… I would never… I mean… maybe I would have since it's Buffy, and..."

"Guys!" Buffy's voice cut through the other voices in the room. Dawn stared at Buffy who was now speechless. Dawn took in a deep breath before continuing.

"Willow reprogrammed the Buffybot to become the Slayer when you were dead," Dawn said as she locked eyes with Buffy, "they didn't tell me, Giles, or Spike what they were planning. So when you came back?" Dawn's eye teared up as she remembered that very day when she saw Buffy about to nearly jump off the top of the tower that Glory's minions had built six months before her death, "when you came back… I was so happy, Buffy." Dawn tightened her hold on Buffy's hand while she hung her head, "you came back to us. But.. but you were out of it. I.. I mean…"

"Dawnie?" asked Buffy who wondered if her return caused something to happen to herself.

"Did Willow mess up?" asked Anya.

"I didn't do anything," Willow reiterated as she stared at a frowning Anya.

"Willow, Anya," Giles gently admonished before nodding at Dawn, "Dawn's not talking about this Willow, Anya. Now, let's listen to what she has to say."

Anya sighed before nodding her head and then turned to Xander who was listening intently. Anya knew that bringing back the dead was risky, and wondered how bad things had gotten in the future.

"No, Willow didn't mess up." Dawn lifted her head back up to stare into Buffy's eyes, "everyone thought that Buffy was being tortured in a hell dimension. We thought that the trauma changed her, and that's why she was pushing herself away from me… from us. We thought that's why she was acting strangely. We thought…"

"I'd never do anything like that, I would never push you away Dawnie, I..." Buffy was then suddenly interrupted by Dawn. Buffy wanted to say that she would never push away her friends. But the expression on Dawn's face as they stared at each other, and the fact that Daw's hands were trembling told her something different.

It was all true, Buffy thought to herself as she looked into Dawn's good eye. She did try to push them away, to keep them at arm's length.

"You were pulled away from heaven, Buffy," Dawn revealed as Willow brought her hands over her mouth. Tara held onto her redhaired girlfriend while Giles looked away sadly. Giles knew that Dawn wasn't talking about this Buffy, but he was still upset at the fact that they never had a thought that Buffy could be in heaven as a gift for sacrificing herself.

Anya and Xander didn't know what to say, they just stared at Buffy in disbelief. As for Buffy herself, she simply stared at Dawn wordlessly. And Dawn continued while Buffy's own thoughts ran through her mind, "you said that this life was hell. And who could blame you, Buff."

"No," Buffy said as she placed her hands on Dawn's cheeks, "I would never…"

"You haven't been through that, Buffy," Giles whispered while Willow shook her head as tears welled in her eyes at the thought of pulling her best friend out of heaven. It was then that Tara leaned in towards her girlfriend and whispered.

"No one knew, Willow." Willow looked back down at Tara and shook her head.

"I should have known," Willow whispered with her eyes wide open in shock, "I… I pulled her out of heaven. Tara, who does that? I…"

"It wasn't your fault, Will," Buffy said looking at her best friend. She then turned to her sister and whispered, "did… did I leave again? Like when Angel was sent to hell, did I leave again?"

"No," Dawn answered "but.. but you weren't there either… part of you loved us. But another part just didn't want to be with us. Didn't want to be with me."

"I…"

"I still loved you," Dawn said as she looked at her sister, "but I went out of control too." Dawn thought it best to skip over the entire kleptomania part of her life. She believed it would be best to talk to her younger self about that in private. However, she also knew that it started after Buffy's death. Taking a deep breath while making a mental note to still talk to her younger self, Dawn then continued, "In the end, we got closer together. But… oh God… but it took a monster to take someone we loved away from us to realise that you belong here, with me. With all of us, Buffy."

"You said it took a monster to take away someone we love?" asked Tara as Dawn looked at her, "A demon?"

"A man shot at Buffy because she stopped him from using mystical stuff to commit crimes," Dawn said as she looked at Tara. Dawn wasn't going to mention Warren's name, neither was she going to mention Andrew or Jonathan. She wanted her own vengeance on the three of them.

Dawn didn't want Buffy and the others to interfere because she knew that they wouldn't do what needed to be done. "Buffy was shot through the shoulder, and then he ran away while firing his gun."

Dawn then stopped as she remembered walking into the room to find Tara's body. While she sat on the couch, Dawn took in a deep breath and then turned to stare at Tara. "A bullet crashed through the second-floor window."

Giles noticed Dawn looking at Tara, and he turned to the witch. As did the others. "The bullet….. it went through Tara."

"What?" asked Willow as she leaned forward while Tara's eyes went wide in stunned silence. The two of them held their hands tight while Tara shook her head 'no'. Willow stood up and her mouth hung open as she looked around at the others in disbelief, and then she turned to look at Dawn.

"I found her body when I came home from school. I tried to wake her up but… I…"

"No," Willow said as Tara closed her eyes and a tear travelled down her cheek. Xander and Anya were seated in place, the both of them still in disbelief as they stared at Willow and Tara. Giles didn't know, once again, what to think. He thought that it was unbelievable, but he could tell from the crack in Dawn's voice that there was truth in what she was saying. He then stared at Buffy who stared at Dawn in stunned silence.

All of them were getting hit in the gut with information that was painful, Giles thought.

And if true, then Tara's death would be as painful as Joyce's death. Buffy then turned back to Dawn and asked, with a soft voice that was threatening to crack at the thought of Tara dying, if what she was telling them was really the truth.

"I won't lie about something like this." Dawn said looking into Buffy's eyes, "Xander was with you when you were shot, and Willow was with Tara. But no one knew about Tara until later, and…"

"I… I would have done something, Dawn," Willow said. Dawn looked back at her and said in a gentle voice.

"You were devastated, Willow," Dawn said, "Xander asked what happened to you when they were putting Buffy in the ambulance, but you didn't say anything.."

"I would have…"

"She was dead," Dawn said looking at Willow, "and you…. you… asked Xander what happened. And he told you. Xander told me you walked away, Willow. My God you were so angry… so…" Dawn then stopped herself and stared at Willow's stunned face, and then at Tara whose shoulders were trembling. Dawn knew this was going to be hard. But she needed to push through, they needed the truth. They needed the truth so that the future could be prevented from happening since anything could still happen for Twilight to come into this new timeline.

The events that led up to The End needed to be prevented.

Dawn then whispered, "you went to the Magic Box and you sucked in every dark magic spell. Willow, you were angry. You were pure rage, hate, destruction… you lost Tara and… and no one could stop you."

"By God, no," Willow said as she looked at Tara who looked back at her.

"Will…"

"I would never lose control like that Tara, I…."

Dawn then told Willow what she already revealed to Tara and Giles earlier that morning in the kitchen. Willow listened in stunned silence as Dawn told her what happened as she descended into uncontrolled magic use. She told Willow about how she reached the bottom, and the clawed herself back… first earning Dawn's trust, and then Buffy's trust, Xander's, Anya's, and the finally Tara. "And she died the day after you guys got back together, a year from now."

"Perhaps it would be best if we took a break, and…"

"I… I need to hear," Tara whispered as she looked at Giles, and then at Willow who had tears coming out of her eyes as they stared at each other. Tara placed her hand on her girlfriend's cheek and smiled while tears gathered in her own eyes, "the future's changing, Willow The more we know, the more…"

"I'll never do anything to hurt you, Tara," Willow said interrupting Tara. The both of them gave each other a kiss, and Dawn looked away. Her heart was breaking, but she didn't want to show it. Dawn looked away at Buffy, glad that she never revealed that Willow wiped Tara's mind a few times.

"Willow, after she absorbed the dark magic from the books in the Magic Box, saved your life," Dawn told Buffy, "but she was angry. So angry."

Dawn told them about that fateful night. Dawn told them how Willow, stunned once again with new revelations, killed the one who shot Tara and Buffy.

"And I was glad," Dawn said as she stared at Willow who had tears streaming down her cheeks after hearing that she killed someone in anger. "I told Buffy I was glad you did it, and…."

"No," Willow said as she got up from her seat and rushed to Dawn. She kneeled down and hugged Dawn tight while saying that Dawn was wrong to have ever thought that. "I… I can't imagine…"

"No one can, Willow," Giles said as Dawn looked at him while Willow parted and then stood up, "an emotional loss like that would be…"

"I was there," Dawn said as she looked up at Willow. And the redhead immediately feared what else she had done. She wondered how far she fell into the darkness. Dawn continued to say that Willow nearly killed Buffy and Xander who rescued "the other two who weren't involved in Tara's murder".

"Buffy, Xander" Willow said looking at all of them, "I…"

"It's not you, baby," Tara said as she got up and held Willow's hand, "It's not you."

"She's not you," Dawn reassured Willow before continuing, "but you still need to know, Will. You stole the power of a dark wizard when you used up your magic. You…. you tried to well… turn me back into an energy ball."

"I did what?" Willow cried as she ran her hand through her hair, "I…"

"You were already deep into magic, Will," Dawn said, "but Buffy stopped you. And then… then well, you and Buffy fought."

"Willow and Buffy looked at each other in disbelief, and then back at Dawn. "Your fight destroyed the Magic Box, and then Giles intervened," Dawn told Willow about Giles and the Devon Coven, and the essence of pure magic that they imbued him with. The very same essence that Willow stole.

Dawn explained how Willow could feel sorrow from everyone on the planet, and the sorrow overwhelmed her until she decided to destroy the world. Dawn stared at Willow as a smile developed on the brunette's face. "you almost succeeded. But it wasn't Buffy who stopped you. It wasn't me, it wasn't Anya."

"Then who was it?" asked Willow.

"Xander was the one who stopped you." Willow looked back at the stunned Xander, as did the other Scoobies.

"I did?"

Dawn explained that it was that Xander who prevented Willow from ending the world by reaching to her humanity which the magic absorbed from Giles helped intensify. Willow and Xander looked at each other, the former rushing to Xander, and then hugging him, as she thanked him for stopping her.

"Technically, I haven't done it yet," Xander said holding Willow tight.

"And now, it won't need to happen," Giles said before turning towards Dawn, "if we know who killed Tara, then we could…"

"I'll make sure he pays," Dawn said with a serious look on her face. She then turned to Buffy, who was looking back at Dawn in concern at what she meant. But before the Slayer could say anything, Dawn spoke, "that was the day things changed. I got my sister back. I got you back, Buffy. That's the day you embraced life again. And that's the day that Willow went to Devon with Giles so that she could learn to control the magics she absorbed."

Dawn then looked at Tara, "and Tara was with her the whole way in spirit."

"But the war?" asked Anya as she leaned forward. She knew there was something else missing.

"The first step was Buffy jumping off the platform, and then she was brought back to life which was the second step. And then Willow absorbing the dark magics and the Devon Coven's essence of magic was the third step. The fourth step to the End was the coming of the First Evil."

Dawn told Buffy and the others about the First and its war against the Slayer Line. She told the group about how the Council was destroyed by the First's agent. It was then that she made a mental note to look up Caleb. She explained that the First was able to take action because Buffy was brought back to life after she died.

"So that's not happening," Anya breathed a sigh of relief.

"But I saw something that called itself the First," Buffy said referring to the being that tried to have Angel kill himself over Christmas a few years back.

"You coming back caused something to happen to the Slayer line," Dawn explained while Giles looked on thoughtfully, "when you were brought back, it caused something that made the First able to act."

"It is possible," Giles said rubbing his chin.

"Yea," Dawn said before continuing to say that the agents of the First then murdered Potential Slayers and their Watchers all over the world. She went on to how Giles brought back Potentials to their house, and then how one of them started to pursue Willow relentlessly. "And yeah, the both of you were together, and.."

"I…."

"I was dead, Will," Tara said as she looked at Willow who was shaking her head in disbelief.

"But…" Willow stammered at Tara, "you and I are soulmates, Tara. How could I even move on from you?"

"Not now," Anya said as she stared at Willow, "you need to listen, Willow. From everything that Dawn's said, you played a key role, and…"

"Without knowing, Anh," Xander interrupted as Anya shot up to her feet, "that timeline's Willow did what she thought was right, and…"

"She nearly ended the world," A very worried Anya said as she motioned to Dawn, "that's what Dawn said." Anya then turned to Willow who was looking away from Anya, "you need to stop, Willow. The more powerful you get, the more…."

"Going cold turkey's not the way," Giles said as he took off his glasses and shook his head, "let me think about this. If the Devon Coven was able to help Willow train in Dawn's future, then… then maybe they can help now."

"Can you call them?" asked Willow as Buffy and Dawn looked at each other. Dawn then looked away and hung her head when Tara said that she'd like to accompany Willow as well. It was then that Dawn continued her story. She talked about how Willow brought Faith back from LA, and how she became Buffy's ally. Dawn looked straight at the surprised look on Buffy's face upon hearing that she and Faith, while not the best of friends, did get along.

"At least you two didn't try to kill each other, much," Dawn said. She then told them about the Scythe and the final battle. About how Willow used her powers to activate every single Slayer on Earth.

"Wow," Buffy said looking at a surprised Willow who pointed at herself.

"I did that?"

"I'd like to know more about the Scythe and, in addition…," Giles turned to Willow, "that is amazing, Willow."

"It was what we needed to do to beat the First Evil," said Dawn after mentioning that she couldn't reveal the location of the Scythe, and asked that Giles didn't tell the Council about it since it was never meant for them to find it. Giles nodded his head and said, "of course" before Dawn continued to speak, "but that was the last Step. We didn't know it at the time, but activating all the Slayers must have caused some kind of a mystical shockwave or something… we weren't sure. But it was a drastic change. And that change had consequences."

"What consequences?" asked Giles.

"Twilight," Dawn said as Giles stood up with his eyes wide open and stumbled back, "the End of all Things."

"No," Giles shook his head at Dawn, "no."

"What's Twilight?" asked Buffy as she quickly got up and rushed to her Watcher who was about to collapse on the floor, "Giles?"

"A story… A Watcher's myth," Giles whispered as he looked past Buffy, at Dawn, "a living dimension that was prophesied when…. When a Slayer would change everything in the world, and be granted the powers of a god, as well as a chance to bring about the birth of a new world," Giles gulped as he looked back at Buffy with terror in his eyes while Dawn looked away sadly, "in the 1680's, thrity members of the Council committed suicide when they thought the prophecy came." His eyes then shifted to Dawn who looked up at him while she was seated, "Dawn, there was a… oh dear God, a drastic change in the Slayer line." Giles then looked back at Buffy, and then Willow, and then back at Buffy, "the activation of all the Slayers in the world. That's what… what… oh dear."

"That's what you said too, in my timeline," Dawn said as Buffy helped the stunned Giles back to his seat. Dawn continued to explain to the stunned group about Twilight, and how he manipulated and led a section of the Army, and the enemies of the Slayers, to murder Slayers all over the world.

Dawn continued that Twilight's Avatar had great power, and so the universe granted Buffy great powers as a counter balance. Dawn looked at Buffy while the latter held onto Giles while was leaning forward on his seat, "you were like Superman, Buffy. And your mission, the reason why the universe gave you those powers was to balance Twilight's chosen champion. You were supposed to kill him. Killing him would have stopped Twilight, but… but you and he had sex."

"Eww," Xander's said as he looked at Buffy.

"I.. I would never…."

"Angel was Twilight's avatar," Dawn said as Buffy's eyes went wide.

"Ok, now the sex thing makes sense," Xander whispered.

"And the result of your sexual… adventure, was the birth of Twilight," Dawn said, "Twilight started to spill into this dimension. And we tried to stop it. Willow, Kennedy, Rona, Vi, every Slayer who was part of the Slayer Army was called to fight. London, LA, Sunnydale, name it… battles were taking place everywhere. And then there was an idea."

Dawn told the group about the Seed of Wonder, and how if it could be destroyed, then Magic would be cut off from Earth. And thus, the Twilight invasion would stop.

"We found the seed, and Buffy was about to destroy it," Dawn then whispered shaking her head, "Angel was free from Twilight after he and Buffy swore to fight against it. But Twilight forcefully took control of Angel again, and then used him to kill Giles."

"No," Willow whispered as she looked at the alarm on Giles' face.

Dawn continued to say that Twilight flung Giles' dead body into Buffy, which knocked her back, "and then Twilight stole the Seed. And his demons continued to pour in." Dawn then closed her eyes, the memories still fresh in her mind, "and we fought. Riley, Faith, Buffy; the three of you trained me. Willow taught me basic spells. The other Slayers were responsible for training every able bodied civilian we came across. We tried to save as many as we could… but… but we lost so many Slayers."

Tara listened to Dawn's haunting voice as she mentioned that billions of lives were lost. She looked away as she imagined the level of death and destruction, and she held Willow's hand tight while Dawn sat alone on the couch.

"So much death.. the air was full of the smell of rotten bodies, the smell of blood," Dawn whispered as her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath as Buffy slowly made her way back to the couch and sat next to her sister. Buffy reached down and held Dawn's hand tight. Dawn looked back up at Buffy, and continued, "Xander died a year after the invasion started. Spike was then killed, and then… so many, Buffy. So many died. Six billion lives gone in a matter of ten years, just like that."

"How did you lose your eye, Dawnie?" Buffy asked gently.

"I lost you," Dawn said without answering Buffy's question, "you were the Slayer, Buffy. Always a Slayer, the one everyone looked up to. The Slayer General."

"Dawnie," Buffy shook her head trying to wrap her mind around what Dawn was saying. Dawn interrupted Buffy before she could say anything else, and asked her to listen. Buffy nodded her head, and Dawn continued, "A few days after I was rescued from Twilight, he…." Dawn bit her lower lip as she looked away and remembered that day like it happened only yesterday, "you, Willow, Riley, and some Army guys rescued me and a few others from Twilight's hands. Because of that, Twilight came after us. He found the compound despite all the powerful wards that were placed around it. Demons invaded and started to kill people and Slayers."

Dawn took a deep breath again to compose herself before she continued talking as she looked straight into Buffy's eyes, "you led the Slayers that were fighting the demons while the others escaped. You ordered them to escape. Willow pulled me away after you ordered her to and… and we ran. We started to evacuate our base after Riley set the self-destruct. You told me you were coming behind me and… and I looked. You were still fighting with Faith and several Slayers by your side, and then... and then you ordered the Slayers to lead us away."

Dawn then widened her eyes at Buffy as she tightened her hold on the latter's hand.

"Faith died pushing you away from a demon," said Dawn, "but you saw that there were more civilians that needed to leave, so you fought, along with a contingent of soldiers. I've never seen you fight that hard. But even… even you couldn't handle them. The soldiers and Slayers were ripped apart in minutes. A demon punched you, Buffy. Then another demon came at you. The fist went through your back… we.. we stared at each other just as we reached the exit. I wanted to run to you, I screamed for you. But Willow and Riley pulled me back."

"No," Willow whispered shaking her head as she imagined what happened..

"Dawnie," Buffy whispered as she placed a hand on Dawn's cheek. She couldn't imagine what her sister had seen. And there was something telling Buffy that she didn't want to see.

"I saw the demon tear your body apart, Buffy," Dawn said as she looked at her sister, "you were the six hundred and sixty seventh Slayer to die. I saw you die and I screamed. And then there was nothing… I was catatonic for four months. I don't remember what happened, but Willow was the one who pulled me out. She helped me back to who I was."

Dawn then glanced at Willow and then closed her eyes before turning back to Buffy. Dawn knew she couldn't reveal that she and Willow were in a relationship, it was something no one needed to know.

"We called it The End of All Things. Twilight took over. Earth's demons were destroyed one after another, six billion people died with most of the survivors forming a resistance. For what good it did us anyway. We fought against demons.. one after another. But nothing worked. Willow was the most powerful witch of the Earth realm, but even she couldn't do a lot since Earth's magic was being corrupted." Dawn then took a deep breath while she let go of one of Buffy's hands and then wiped the tears gathering in her eyes.

"That was bound to happen," Giles whispered as Buffy pulled Dawn in for a tight hug.

"We thought we lost everything," Dawn said as she held on to Buffy tight, the former's heart breaking as she thought about Willow, "but Willow heard a rumour a year ago from my perspective. A powerful spell capable of sending one person back through time. And with Earth's magic nearly fully corrupted for Willow to use, the both of us went on a road trip. We went to London, found the spell, and then returned to LA."

Dawn held on tight to Buffy as she thought about her adventures with the redhead during the journey. She closed her eyes as she remembered the smile on her Willow's face. A smile she would never see again.

"Willow cast the spell that brought me here," Dawn whispered as she pulled back and looked into Buffy's eyes, "and the last time I saw her, a demon stabbed her through her back."

"She sent you here," Buffy whispered as she only imagined what Dawn must have been through, "you changed the future, Dawnie. We'll stop everything from happening, and.. and we'll prevent that future."

"Yea," Tara said as Dawn turned her head to look at her

"First things first, Dawnie," Willow said, "who killed Tara?"

Dawn looked at Willow. And shook her head, "Be happy with Tara, Willow," Dawn whispered. She could see that Willow was about to interfere, but Dawn spoke first, "just live your life with the woman you love." Dawn looked sadly at Willow, and then at Tara, and back at Willow again before looking away, "be happy."

**Just outside the Sunnydale Crater, 2021.**

A black boot stepped into the blood soaked ground as demons ate the various pieces of flesh and bone that were scattered throughout. The owner of the black boot then took a few more steps to the site of an intact mass of body parts that lay scattered in a small circle. The masked villain tilted his head and stared at the torn half of Willow's bloody head and then he looked back up. He could sense the scar formed by the sealing of a mystical doorway. He knew Dawn, the last survivor of the Twilight incursion, had escaped his grip.

"Just where did you go, Dawnie?" whispered Twilight as he looked back down at the body parts of the red-haired witch who was supposed to be all-powerful and feared.

He smirked before whispering, "maybe you would know, Willow." Twilight raised a hand and aimed it at the pieces of Willow's body. The hand glowed a sickly green as body parts started to shake before being lifted off the ground. "You'll tell me, Red. You'll tell me everything."

TBC.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**The Summers Residence.**

As Buffy stared into the mirror in her room, she leaned with her palms pressed down against the surface of her dresser and imagined the life she and Dawn had in the future. A possible future. One where she and the Scoobies battled the First Evil, a future where Willow activated all the Slayers on Earth- leading to the appearance of Twilight. A future where Willow became a dark shell of herself and nearly destroyed the world after being taken over by grief. A future where it was Xander who saved the world by getting through to his oldest friend.

And it began with Buffy's death, and then her resurrection. Buffy's palms remained flat on the dresser as she stared at herself in the mirror, and then glanced at the closed door behind which was Dawn… the older Dawn, down the stairs and in the living room alone. Buffy then looked back at the mirror.

She told Dawn, after everyone had left for their homes to absorb everything they learned, that she was going to change into something new and, "then you and me are going to the mall. I want to know everything not demon related, I want to know everything about your life."

After Dawn nodded her head, Willow and Tara said that they were heading back to their dorm room. The both of them had been staying with Buffy and the younger Dawn during the Glory incident because of the fact that there was safety in numbers. Because of that, some of Tara and Willow's clothes were in Joyce's old room while they rest were in their room in the U.C Sunnydale Campus. Before everyone left though, Buffy asked why it was that Dawn was still alive.

"I mean she changed the future, right?" asked Buffy staring at Willow.

Willow explained that it was possible Dawn's intervention may not have necessarily changed the future, at least their future. She further explained that Dawn's intervention may have simply created a branch in the timeline instead of necessarily changing their future. "Technically you did change the future," said Willow as she turned to Dawn while Anya rubbed her chin thoughtfully standing next to Xander, "you changed this future, Dawnie. But I think your future, the one you came from, still exists on it's own timeline. That may not have changed."

"You mean like that… oh… wait…" Xander snapped his fingers together while rubbing the back of his neck deep in thought. His eyes were shifting between Dawn and the floor as he tried to remember the comic book he recently read that had a similar situation. "Oh… oh… oh," Xander excitedly said as he looked up at Dawn and quickened the snapping of his fingers, "Days of Future Past!"

"Huh?" asked Tara while Willow looked on confused at Xander. As did Buffy and the older Dawn. Xander looked at each women looking back at him quizzically before he shook his head and excitedly waved his hands about.

"Come on, the comic book? I just got the graphic novel?" he exclaimed while Giles fixed his glasses. The Watcher was about to say that comic books didn't necessarily apply to real world situations. However, before Giles could say anything, Xander explained the story for the net few minutes, with Anya and Buffy telling him to move on when he began going too deep into certain parts of the story. "Anyway, in the end, Kitty's consciousness is sent back to the future after she helps prevent the assassination. But, guess what, the future didn't change. Her future didn't change."

"Again, that is just a work of fiction," Giles pointed out as he placed his hands on his waist.

"Even so," Buffy said turning back to her sister, "Dawn, this Dawn, is safe and sound. And she's alive."

"If that's true, then Twilight could come here," Dawn furrowed her eyebrows at Buffy and then at the others, "I mean this is another timeline where what could have happened in my future, won't happen. But even then that means Twilight could very well come to this timeline. To this past?"

"We have to remember that Twilight was only able to break into Dawn's future because of the change in the Slayer line," Giles explained. He was still in disbelief about what he had just heard, especially about Twilight and the aftermath of its appearance while he continued, "without that opening, Twilight will not be able to come here. At least that is the hope."

"Willow had the spell memorised," Dawn explained as she turned from Buffy to Tara, to Giles, and the others before turning to Willow. She gazed at her while explaining, "you destroyed the scroll it was written on after memorising the spell, Willow. You didn't want anyone else to know the spell. You told me that the doorway to the past will seal shut after I leave."

"Then we have nothing to worry about," Xander said.

"As long as every Slayer in the world isn't activated," Anya added.

"Of course, Dawn being here could also mean that the future could still happen," Willow said with a shrug, "or that the future will take time to be erased, and…"

"Which means I could still be erased?" asked Dawn as Buffy turned and stared at Willow, and then at Dawn.

"No," Buffy shook her head at Dawn before turning to Willow, the very person the blonde Slayer considered the smartest in the room. She stared at Willow, hoping for her to say 'no' as well.

"We haven't had anyone use a spell to time travel before, Buffy." Willow explained waving her arms, "this is temporal mechanics at work here and…" Willow then looked at the older Dawn, and then back at Buffy with a sigh, along with a rub of the back of her own neck, "and I'll have to do some research on this."

"Especially since this really isn't a movie or anything," Anya pointed out turning to Xander with a frown on her face, "or a comic book."

"Let's say that the future takes time to change," Dawn waved her arms staring at Willow, "and when it does, would I still be here?"

"If you're from our future? From this timeline's future?" Willow whispered while shaking her head, "then no. You'll vanish. At least in theory."

"And everything I want to do? Spend time with you and Tara? With Buffy?" a worried Dawn asked as she stared at Willow.

"We'll remember you," Willow said, "but you'll be erased. Give it a few hours, and…. And…"

"And we'll go out," Buffy said as she placed her arm over Dawn's shoulders. Dawn turned her head and smiled at Buffy while placing her arm across Buffy's back and placing a hand on the Slayer's side. Dawn then tilted her head until it was resting on the side of Buffy's head.

Willow nodded her head before repeating that if the future was being erased slowly, then they would know in a few hours. If the temporal wave wiped the future, it'll travel back in time and take Dawn away as well. If not, if Dawn still remined in Sunnydale by nightfall, then this was a divergent timeline split from the original. Either way, Buffy reiterated to Dawn that they were going to the mall. Tara and Willow said that they didn't have classes that day and so were going to head back to the dorm, and shower before offering to accompany both Dawn and Buffy to the mall.

Dawn and Buffy nodded their heads before Anya and Xander said that they would love to join them, but they had to work at the construction site and the Magic Box respectively. Giles too was unable to join them, although he did tell Dawn that he would like to talk to her more at the Magic Box about what else she knew about the future.

And Dawn nodded her head.

It would be an hour later, after everyone left and Buffy getting ready in her room after she showered, Dawn was standing over the weapons chest Buffy kept in the living room. She reached down and brushed her fingers on the wooden cover before crouching down to open it. Dawn stared at the various weapons in the chest while, at the same time, keeping an ear out for Buffy's door opening. She already made a mental list of her first target few targets; Amy, Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew. Dawn's heart raced as she leaned over and stared at the weapons inside; crossbows, crosses, swords, stakes, and daggers.

Dawn eyed one of the daggers before she hurriedly, but quietly, closed the cover again. And then she closed the latch upon hearing the door to Buffy's room opening.

"Dawn?" yelled Buffy as Dawn walked over to the bottom of the stairs and watched as her sister walked down towards her, "you ready?"

"Yea," Dawn replied as she kept her eyes on her sister. The former Key forgot how young her sister used to be, especially since the battle against Twilight aged her considerably. Now here was Buffy, in her mid-twenties and full of life. Dawn stared at Buffy as the latter held her hand and asked if she wanted to talk. Dawn nodded her head and said, "you didn't die, Buff. If I vanish. If I stop existing, then my younger self has you to look after her."

"You won't vanish," Buffy said as she placed a hand on Dawn's cheek.

And Dawn, for her part, leaned her head into the hand and closed her eye. Buffy stared at her sister, and tried to imagine everything that she had been through. Yes, Dawn described what happened in great detail, but Buffy knew it was completely different than actually experiencing it. There were so many questions going through her mind as Buffy put her arm around Dawn's shoulder while they walked out the front door. Buffy, once they were out on the porch, then turned and locked the door while wondering how Dawn lost her eye. Buffy wanted to know if that person still existed in the past, and she wanted to hurt him or her.

She wanted to hurt whoever it was badly. Very, very badly.

**Tara and Willow's Room, Stevenson Hall, fifteen minutes after Buffy and Dawn left the Summers house.**

Willow and Tara walked out of the shower, opening the door to their room as steam rose out into the dimly lit room. The both of them were covered in towels as they walked hand in hand towards the closet. Opening the door in silence, they took out their clothes and placed them on the bed behind them before closing the closet doors. Tara and Willow glanced at each other, the former giving the latter a gentle smile as they put on their underwear before reaching for their pants.

What Dawn told them about the future terrified them to no end; especially Willow. Willow couldn't imagine Tara dying, much less she herself killing someone for Tara's death. Her body shook after they got into their room following the revelation, as did Tara when she realised that it would be a year later that she was supposed to die.

It was Willow who was the first to break down as she hugged Tara an hour ago. The redhead told Tara that she didn't want to lose her, and that she was sorry for having killed someone. "I… I swear it was out of anger, and…"

"You didn't do it, sweetie," Tara replied whispering into Willow's ear while tears gathered in her eyes and Willow cried. Her heart was racing while imagining Willow becoming a being who had the potential to end the world out of anger. Tara closed her eyes as she hugged Willow, her hand running through Willow's red hair and whispered, "I'm here. Baby, I'm right here with you. The future's changed, honey."

"We don't know that," Willow whispered as she pulled back, wiped the tears flowing down her cheeks, and stared at Tara, "Tara, I don't know what I'll do if you die, and… and what if I become like the me from Dawn's future if you do die and…" Tara stopped Willow's rambling after leaning in to kiss her passionately on the lips. The both of them held each other tight and continued to kiss before parting, both of them panting, a minute later.

"You won't become like her," Tara whispered leaning forward before their foreheads touched while their hands roved around each other. "But Will, what we do? Helping Buffy, going up against the darkness? You know that one of us, or the both of us could eventually die."

"I know," whispered Willow as she looked away at the carpeted floor, and then back at Tara once again. "But losing you and Buffy and Xander and Giles and… and even Anya, I…"

"If it happens," Tara said with a cracked voice, imagining Willow dying in her arms, "then… then I hope we die together."

Willow then closed her eyes and took in a deep breath while Tara continued to talk, "but that's a big 'what if'." Willow opened her eyes and gazed at Tara who continued, "if Giles can get the Devon coven to help you, then I'll go with you; if you'll have me, that is."

"Of course, d'uh," Willow replied as she placed a hand on the back of Tara's neck, "I want you there with me, baby."

It was then that the both of them kissed once again. A few minutes later, the both of them started to peel each others clothes off before Tara gently pushed Willow down onto the bed. It would be several minutes later that the two of them, panting heavily, rushed off into the shower where they spent the remainder of the time... enjoying each other's company under a stream of warm water.

Back to the present day, Tara put on a shirt before asking, "I wonder if Dawn has a boyfriend she hasn't told us about."

"That's the big question you want to ask?" asked Willow arching an eyebrow at her girlfriend before putting on a pastel shirt, "really?"

"Oh?" asked Tara as she took a step towards Willow and wrapped her arms around the latter's back. She pulled Willow close while the redhead wrapped her arms around Tara and smile, "what do you wanna ask her?"

"Dawn said I did something that made you leave me," Willow whispered as she looked into Tara's eyes, "there's a part of me that wants to know what it was and… and another part that's terrified t know. Terrified to known what I could have done that was so bad you have to leave me."

AS Tara stared into Willow's emerald coloured eyes, it was a question that had been in the back of Tara's mind as well. She wanted to know what happened to cause her to leave Willow, but at the same time she didn't want to know. Tara mentally told herself that the future was changing, and that what happened in Dawn's future may not happen in this particular present. But Tara also knew that Willow was susceptible to jumping into the deep end of magic without thinking, 'maybe it was some spell she did that made me leave her?'

"We'll ask her together," Tara whispered as Willow nodded her head. But there was something in the back of both of their minds telling them it wasn't an answer they were going to like.

"I need to know so that I don't do it in our present," Willow whispered. And Tara nodded her head in support.

It was just then that there was a knock on their door. Tara and Willow looked at their wall clock and then back at each other. "Who is it?" asked Tara after she leaned in and kiss Willow on her lips, and then turned towards the door.

"It me," Buffy said from the other side of the door, "me and Dawn."

"Hey, you guys ready to go?" Buffy said after Tara opened the door and then stepped aside while telling Buffy and Dawn to get into the room.

"We're ready to go," Willow said as she strode over and stood next to Tara. Dawn looked around the room, and smiled before looking back at Tara and Willow.

"It's just like I remember," Dawn said with a gentle smile on her face just as she heard a squeak from behind Willow and Tara, next to the bed behind them. Dawn looked over Willow's shoulder before walking around her towards the white coloured cage with a running wheel and a bottle of water with a spout that travelled into the cage. And in the contraption was a grey furry rat which was up on its hind legs and staring at Dawn who had her jaws locked, and rage in her eyes.

Tara sensed the anger coming off of Dawn as she and Willow walked over and stood next to the older woman. Buffy walked up to Dawn and looked at the cage, and then at Dawn, "well, that's Amy. Is she… you know… alive after Twilight appeared?"

"No," Dawn said as she turned to Buffy, "she died." Dawn then looked back at the rat and thought to herself, 'I'm coming for you soon, Amy.' Dawn turned back to her sister with a shrug of her shoulders and then turned to Willow and Tara, "should we, you know, get going?"

"Ye.. yeah," Willow said nodding her head while Tara asked Dawn, as she sensed her anger growing, if everything was alright.

"Amy was in love with the person that killed Tara," Dawn said as Buffy turned her head towards Amy with narrowed eyes and, in the meantime, Willow and Tara looked at each other in stunned silence before turning back to Dawn. "After Willow killed him, Amy resurrected him and…. Yeah. Anyway, he nearly killed Willow in revenge. But Buffy stopped him."

"We should still change her back into a human," Tara said after taking a deep breath, "she doesn't deserve to be…"

"She deserves everything she gets," Dawn said as she turned her head and stared at Amy, and then back at Willow and Buffy, "trust me."

"She can still change, Dawnie," Buffy pointed out.

"Maybe, maybe not," Dawn said looking at her sister. She knew in the back of her mind that Buffy wouldn't help her with what needed to be done. Dawn and Amy weren't friends, not the way that Willow and Buffy were friends with her. 'The both of them would want to make sure she becomes human.' Dawn crouched down as she memorized the rat's colour while it looked up at Dawn, 'and Tara's not going to go along with what I want to do. Now, all I need to do is get access to a computer, find a place that has exotic pets, and then find a rat that looks just like Amy.'

Dawn then stood back up and turned, "so, the mall?"

"Yep," Buffy said as she placed her arm around Dawn's shoulder and walked towards the door past Willow and Tara. The two witches looked at each other for a few seconds, before following behind Buffy and Dawn out the door. Tara couldn't help but feel unease at the anger that had been coming off of Dawn when she was staring down Amy. As she closed the door behind her while Willow rushed up to Dawn and held her hand, Tara couldn't help but wonder what Dawn was thinking, 'and do I even want to know.'

TBC.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**The year 2021, location unknown.**

Willow was happy.

At least that was the last thing she remembered.

She was hugging Buffy, her eyes full of tears at seeing her again. At seeing everyone she loved. From Xander, Giles, Tara, Faith, Anya, Joyce, Spike, to even Andrew. They were all there to greet surrounded by wisps of heavy white clouds after her death. Willow remembered telling Buffy while they hugged that she loved Dawn, that they weren't together just because they both needed a release from the death and destruction all around them.

"I really loved her, Buffy," Willow whispered as Buffy nodded her head as they continued to hug. The Slayer then pulled back, a smile on her face and said she was happy for Willow. Buffy told Willow that, to her, she had only arrived what seemed like minutes ago.

"I saw mom, Giles, Anya, Xander, Faith, Spike, and Tara here waiting for me," Buffy said as Willow looked up from her. The blonde Slayer stepped back as Tara rushed at Willow. The both of them hugged while Buffy stood to one side; the Slayer smiling at Xander and the others who walked closer while Tara and Willow kissed. She then turned back to Willow who whispered, "I love you, Tara. I love Dawn. I love you both so much, baby."

"She did something so brave, Will," Tara whispered as she looked into Willow's eyes while brushing the tips of her fingers on Willow's check, "and you made the ultimate sacrifice so that she could go back in time." Tara kissed Willow again while the others surrounded them. Willow was then let go by Tara so that the former could hug Xander, Giles, and then Joyce.

However, just as she was about to hug Spike, Willow stumbled backwards, to the worried looks from the others, as she grabbed her chest.

"Will?" Tara cried as she dashed to her girlfriend and held her arm. Buffy rush to Willow as well and grabbed her other arm to steady her as she shook her head while panting. "Will!?" Tara cried again, her voice tinged with sorrow, as Willow started to fade. The blonde witch turned to Giles and asked what was happening while Willow stared at Tara, and then at Buffy, and then at the others before closing her eyes.

"I… I… feel I'm being pulled… oh God," Willow opened her eyes wide and then vanished. Tara had tears in her eyes while Buffy stared in abject shock. Giles shook his head while Xander and Anya held onto each other. Joyce rushed to Buffy and Tara when the latter crumbled, crying, to the mist covered floor while Faith and Andrew stood next to each other, the former having her hands in her jeans pockets.

"She was pulled back to Earth," Giles whispered shaking his head, "it shouldn't be possible but… I suppose Twilight's takeover of this entire dimension is so complete that he controls everything. Who lives and… and who dies."

"Then why not resurrect any of us?" asked Buffy while she hugged Tara, the both of them on their knees while Joyce had a hand on both their shoulders, "Giles?"

"Because Willow Rosenberg opened the doorway to the past," a voice that seemed to be a cacophony of voices from men, women, and children, was being spoken from behind them. They all turned towards Faith whose eyes were glowing blue while Andrew was stumbling back, away from the dark-haired Slayer, and into Anya.

"Who are you?" asked Giles while 'Faith' glanced at Tara who was wiping her eyes between sobs as she, Buffy, and Joyce stared back at her.

"I am a representative of what you call the Powers that Be," 'Faith' responded as she stared at Giles who narrowed his eyes. "We have known for some time that Twilight would be able to take over all dimensions within this realm. And we were in the process of locking out the heavenly dimensions from his influence. We were simply waiting for the deaths of the final group people who have been responsible for saving this realm numerous times; including Willow Rosenberg and Dawn Summers."

"Guys?" a surprised Riley said after suddenly appearing out of nowhere with a confused look on his face at seeing his ex-girlfriend, along with Graham and various other Slayers and soldiers who simply appeared out of nowhere.

"Riley?" asked a stunned Buffy.

"Our base was discovered and… and everyone was killed and…"

"Twilight's take over is complete," 'Faith' said nodding her head as she interjected what Riley wanted to say, "Willow Rosenberg has been taken, and he has plans for her. Plans that…"

"Then send us back," Tara said as she got onto her feet with Buffy, "send me back, and… and I'll bring her…"

"This is no longer your duty," 'Faith' said, "the heavenly dimensions are in the process of being closed off from the rest of this realm."

"Send me back!" yelled Tara as tears travel down her cheeks and her face turned red in anger and sorrow.

"What we do is as thanks for saving this realm multiple times, Tara Maclay," 'Faith' said, "Willow Rosenberg has a different destiny. Now…." Faith then glanced upwards at the mist covered celling, and then to the pure white mist behind them. She raised her arm up and waved. Everyone behind her saw the mist dissipate to reveal a massive city with spires rising out into the air while towers of white and blue hovered in the air on green land. 'Faith' then turned around and welcomed them to their new home, "the heavenly dimensions have been closed off for all time. All the people who died are in the Heavenly plains beyond this… holding room. A holding room for the people who sacrificed their lives to protect the world; for all of you. Only minutes passed in this room while years passed in the real world."

"I…." Tara's voice cracked before she was interrupted.

"Welcome home, and… and thank you for the sacrifices all of you had to make."

Faith then groaned and stumbled back, nearly fell onto the mist covered floor if it wasn't for Graham who dashed towards her and held her up. "Why do I taste cherries in my mouth?" a confused Faith asked as she looked at Graham holding her steady, and then at the others, "what happened?"

"Willow's gone," Buffy whispered as she held onto a tearful Tara.

**Earth, 2021.**

Willow snapped her eyes open while panting. The last thing she remembered was hugging Tara before she was pulled back from death. Willow was now surrounded by demons eating body parts of the soldiers who accompanied them to the Sunnydale Crater. She looked around as the stench of blood and guts in the air filled her nostrils, and the redhead kept down the lump forming in her throat. Willow noticed the orbs of green energy that had been surrounding her hands and feet; holding her several inches off the blood covered ground.

"Angel!" yelled Willow who guessed that it was Twilight who brought her back from Heaven. It surprised her just as it terrified her at the same time. 'we never realized how powerful Twilight could be.' Willow thought to herself as she looked over her shoulders for any sign of Twilight, 'he was able to reform my body, and pull my soul back at the same time. How much more powerful could he get? Or is this the extent of his abilities?'

"Welcome back, Willow."

Willow turned her head back to the front and glared at Twilight who was standing with his hands behind his back. She could see his eyes through the black and yellow mask he was wearing; eyes that stared right into her very soul. Willow could see the smile forming under the mask as he stepped forward and placed a hand on her cheek before asking, "where is she, Willow? Where's Dawn? I don't see her body anywhere, and… and I can send a scar in the fabric of my realm only starting to heal?"

"I guess you can't get everything you want, can you?" Willow hissed as she tilted her head.

"Little girl," Twilight sneered as he walked to the spot where the portal had formed from a few minutes ago. He pulled his arm back, his hand forming a clenched fist, and then pushed it forward. Willow had her eyes wide open when a rift was momentarily torn open. His fist was just outside the tear when a tingling sensation went through his body- he recognized the feeling as he smiled at Willow.

"Time travel," he said before he pushed his arm into the breach. But a blue flash of light pushed the arm… and Twilight himself back. He fell onto the blood covered ground to the surprise of Willow while the demons were all feasting on leftover body parts. Willow was confused, the wheels in her mind were working overtime wondering what was going on.

Then she figured it out. And Willow started to laugh after a few seconds. She continued to laugh as Twilight glared at her while getting up to his feet.

"Oh this is so rich!" laughed Willow as tears started to come out of her eyes while she stared as Twilight's body shook in rage. "you can't tear the rift open. You can't go through where Dawn was sent. You didn't exist then… the dimensional walls were never torn then…"

"You sent her to the past," he sneered while his clenched fists trembled by his sides, "you…."

"To prevent you from ever coming to this realm," Willow said before laughing again.

"I'm still here," Twilight growled as he rushed up to Willow and got in her face, "Dawn failed."

"My baby wouldn't fail," Willow sneered as she stared into Twilight's eyes, "she would never fail. You have Angel's memories of her determination and her spunk… she would stop you from ever manifesting."

This time, it was Twilight who sneered before repeating himself, "I'm still here."

"For a living dimension," Willow chuckled, "you're really stupid in some ways aren't you?"

Twilight glared at Willow before a smiled formed under the mask. He knew what was going on, why he and Willow, and his rule itself hadn't been erased yet. He knew any changes would occur from the future and ripple back to the past. But he and his minions were still present and accounted for. "A branch timeline where I haven't been birthed," Twilight said as he looked back at the place where he opened the portal from earlier, a portal he could feel was nearly healed.

"Oh, I'll be given birth in that timeline as well," Twilight crowed looking back at Willow, "and you will be the means by which that will happen. That would be so delicious; you would be the vessel that prepares my access to that timeline."

"I'll never…."

"You will activate all the Slayers," Twilight growled, "that would create the conditions for my return, that will break the dimensional walls and I will come through that dimensional breach. I will control this timeline, and the one that branched off to form a new past, a new present, and a new future. And I… with you by my side… will punish Dawn for daring to go against me."

"I will never, ever, help you." Willow growled as a cold chill went up her spine. There was a part of her that knew he could do what he wanted… that he could open the rift. Willow mentally kicked herself at underestimating Twilight's power, 'he is this dimension. I'm looking at the vessel, but Twilight has already taken over. Of course, he'd have enough power to open the rift. But he can't get through, so that's the really good thing. He can't affect the past on his own, and…'

"You can fight all you want, Willow," Twilight said as he took few steps forward until they were inches apart. He up took off his mask before dropping it to the blood-soaked ground. And for the first time in over ten years, Willow laid eyes on her former friend, on Buffy's former lover, and the ally of the Scoobies and leader of the Fang-gang. Angel was pale, and his eyes were cloudy… his hair had gone silver as a smile formed on his face to show his still sharp fangs. He caressed both sides of Willow's face, his gloved fingers brushing on her skin as they stared eye to eye.

To anyone else looking on, it would seem as the both of them were simply staring at each other. However, in reality, something much more different was happening. Willow tried to pull more of the Earth's magic to block the tendrils she felt creeping into her mind. She knew it was Twilight reaching into her thoughts and memories, corrupting them… bastardizing them for his own use. Willow clenched her teeth tight as she gathered more power… at least she tried to. The Earth's magic was so corrupted that she could only feel a trickle; she already used the majority of her powers to open the rift.. a rift which she could now feel had already healed, but Twilight tore it open.

Willow closed her eyes in pain, trying not to scream, as Twilight's hands glowed while she was being brainwashed to follow his orders. But Willow couldn't hold the pain back anymore. She released a loud scream as Twilight laughed.

**Sunnydale Mall, the past.**

Willow and Tara stared at Dawn in utter shock while Buffy hand her elbows on the table in front of her, cradling her forehead in the palms of her hands. They had just finished eating lunch in the mall, and their table was full of empty plates and containers from the nearby Chinese stall, when Tara and Willow insisted on knowing why it was that Tara left Willow in the other timeline.

It was Dawn who told them that they didn't need to know- that Giles would be able to get Willow help in controlling her magic, and what happened to her Willow and Tara wouldn't happen in the new timeline. But Tara and Willow still wanted to know.

And so, Dawn reluctantly told them. And the reaction was exactly what she predicted; a stunned look on Tara, a horrified expression from Willow, and the worried expression on Buffy. Dawn glanced at all of them before saying that Willow did get better, but the damage was done. And it became even more pronounced to 'world-ending' levels after Tara's death.

"The Willow I knew after Tara died had what she should have always had," Dawn said, "our support. She had self-control, and us calling her out when she tried to go too far." Dawn turned to Willow and smiled before turning back to Buffy who was looking back at her sister, "you pulled her back, Buffy. Xander too. Giles, Me… we all did."

Buffy nodded her head while Willow turned to Tara and hugged her tight.

"That's never happening between us, baby," Willow whispered as she thought to herself about the fight they had the day Tara had her mind sucked. She wanted to head to the Magic Box and find a spell that would remove the memory of their fight. She was actually going to head up to the dark magic section on the second floor and find a book that would explain the ingredients needed for the spell casting… but there were too many people. She had to wait; but as fate would have it, that was the day she rushed to the Cultural Fair after one of Glory's minions was captured. The creature told Willow and the others that Glory believed Tara was the Key.

Willow's heart raced a she closed her eyes and hugged Tara tight. That day, Willow wanted to remove the memories of that fight; Willow wanted to make her forget. And she shuddered wondering what she could have done if Glory hadn't sucked Tara's mind that day.

And it was then Willow realised that she was going to do what her alternate timeline version had already done. She was going to go so far down into magic that she would drown. She couldn't lose Tara, and to make sure she didn't.. Willow mentally told herself to put herself wholeheartedly into listening to the Devon Coven.

'If they take me in, that is.' Willow thought to herself.

Over the next few hours, Dawn told Tara, Willow, and Buffy about her life. About their lives, at least what she felt they should know.

It would be later that the younger Dawn would find out about the future. And it would be the both of them who would later tell Buffy that there should be enough time for her to return to U. C. Sunnydale. Buffy listened to Dawn who told her how she started the Slayer Organization, "you stole money."

"I…." Buffy shook her head as they were drinking coffee back at the house while the Younger Dawn was drinking some juice.

"Yea," the older Dawn said nodding her head, "you need to go back to U.C. Sunnydale." The younger Dawn then turned to Willow who said that they needed to come up with a new identity for the older Dawn.

In the meantime, Spike was in his crypt with his own questions about the older Dawn. He wanted to head to Buffy's home early that morning, but the sun was just coming out. He decided to wait until evening before making his way to the Summers home. He wanted to know more about the older Dawn. He had taken in the scent of death from her body when she appeared the previous night, and he had many questions to ask.

**Spike's Crypt, 1900 hours.**

And it would be in the evening that he would get his answers. It would be in the evening that the older Dawn walked into his crypt as he got off his armchair at the creak of his door opening. He had so many questions for this older Dawn as she stepped into the large room, closing the door behind her. So many questions swimming in his mind. But before he could ask a single question; Dawn spoke up first.

"I need you to leave Sunnydale," she said with her hands in her jeans pocket while staring at Spike.

And that was something he didn't expect to hear, "excuse me?" Spike narrowed his eyes.

"Leave Sunnydale, Spike," Dawn said as she stepped into the dimly lit crypt while staring at Spike. What she was doing broke her heart, Spike cared for her like a sister… protected her when Buffy asked him to. Starting out as their enemy, he became an ally to Buffy even before getting his soul back. But Dawn also knew that Spike raped Buffy, and he got let off without any punishment… and that was chiefly because they were facing the end of the world thanks to the First Evil.

Eventually Dawn forgave him… as did Buffy. At least Dawn thought she did, especially since no-one ever talked about it again in the future… in her timeline. Back in the present day, Dawn stared at the stunned Spike and recalled her own feelings at being told by Xander of what happened that fateful night. She remembered talking to Buffy about it after Willow was taken to Devon. Dawn remembered how angry she was as Buffy sat her down and told her what happened- and said that it was over between her and Spike. That she couldn't love Spike. She would never love Spike.

That is until she did fall in love with him during the battle with the First Evil. She admitted to Dawn that she loved him… that she professed it as he burned in the Hellmouth before Sunnydale fell into the crater.

And now, as she stared at Spike- all she could remember was the bruises Buffy showed her on her legs and arms. At the same time, Dawn also remembered the gentle Spike. The Spike who looked after her after Buffy's death. The Spike who turned his life around and helped them save the world so many times after getting his soul back.

But that Spike was from another time. Another place. That Spike was dead.

The older Dawn did not want those same events to play out. Dawn knew the catalyst for Buffy and Spike moving forward in their initially toxic relationship was because of the formers death and eventual resurrection. The only way that Buffy could feel anything at all after she was ripped away from heaven was when she and Spike were having sex- the both of them used one another. And that evolved to something more.

And Dawn knew that. She knew that there was the possibility that Buffy may not fall for Spike that way. She knew that the toxic relationship may not play out… that they wouldn't use one another simply for sex. That Buffy wouldn't demean herself- Dawn remembered the regret in Buffy's eyes the following morning or late at night when she would come home after spending 'time' with Spike.

Dawn remembered it all.

"The Spike I knew had feelings for Buffy," Dawn said back in the present day as Spike looked away, "and I know you have feelings for her now."

"You may be from the future, but even you don't know what you're talking about, Bit," Spike said as he turned and started to walk away towards the armchair. He loved Buffy. It was unusual- something Spike was very aware of given he was supposed to be a soulless monster- but that was the truth. Buffy was in his mind; in the day and at night.. she was always there. Spike turned around upon reaching the armchair, and placed a hand on the edge of the seat while staring at Dawn.

"You're right, Spike," the older Dawn said taking a step forward while her hands were still in her pockets, "I'm from the future. A possible future where the world has already ended."

"Yea, I know that part," Spike said as he recalled the conversation he and the other Scoobies had the previous night. The night that the older Dawn appeared. However, he was curious about what she meant by the world having already ended.

And so he let Dawn continue, "I've seen hell on Earth, I've seen everyone die, and I've fought… I've kept on fighting an unwinnable war. Now things change. Everything that leads up to that war changes."

"I…."

"And I have some personal things to take care of," Dawn spoke as she took another step closer to Spike, "I remember what happens, Spike. In my future, Buffy dies and you protected me. Tara and Willow protected me, so did Xander and Anya."

"She made me promise to look out for you if she died," Spike said, referring to the promise he made to Buffy in the event she died against Glory.

"You loved Buffy, and that was why you looked out for me," Dawn said as Spike looked away, "and I get that, I really do. But she doesn't have any feelings for you." Dawn stared at Spike, who turned his head and looked back at her. Dawn remained calm the while time, she didn't want to be nervous during any lies so that Spike couldn't hear her heart race. Dawn took in a deep breath before telling Spike, "she can't love you, Spike."

"That was your future, and…." Dawn interjected before Spike could finish what he wanted to say. Dawn said that she was in the past, and that the future was already changing. And she continued until she said something that had Spike simply stare at Dawn with his lips parted in stunned silence, "your love for Buffy? That love you have for her?" Dawn shook her head and pursed her lips before taking another step forward- they were now just three steps apart, and said, "that didn't stop you from trying to rape her."

"No…" said a disbelieving Spike as he stepped back with eyes wide open. That was something he couldn't imagine doing- well, he had done it before when he was one of the four monsters that terrorized Europe. But he couldn't imagine doing that to Buffy now, 'not to Buffy' he thought to himself. He stared at the one-eyed Dawn and hoped she was lying, but the momentary look of anger on her face, coincided with her suddenly rapid heartbeat to confirm that what she said was true. But Spike was still in disbelief.

"I haven't told Buffy," Dawn said as she stepped back, "and I won't. I'm going to spare her that betrayal. I want to spare my younger self that betrayal."

"But… but we fought together in your future…" Spike, still reeling from the revelation that he would hurt Buffy like that, stammered, "we…"

"A series of event that wouldn't happen in this timeline combined to make us push what you did to the back of our minds, Spike," Dawn said, "those are not happening in this timeline. I'll make sure of…"

"What are you going to do?" Spike demanded to know as he stepped forward.

"I want you to leave Sunnydale, Spike," Dawn said as her eye looked straight into Spike's eyes, "tonight. Leave tonight, and don't come back. If…"

"Dawn," barked Spike. But Dawn remained unflinching. He knew she was telling the truth about earlier, he knew that she had seen hell.. that she had fought in a war… and that he had hurt Buffy. To him, Dawn was his Lil'Bit; even this older version. He wanted to know what she meant by she was going to make sure that her future wasn't happening… he was concerned about the tone in her voice. He was concerned this older Dawn may do something unthinkable.

"Leave Sunnydale, Spike," Dawn said calmly, "if you don't? I'll come by when you're asleep, and I will burn you." Spike stared into Dawn's eye and shook his head. He felt a cold chill in his bones as he stared at the brunette, at how calm she was when she threatened him.

"I….."

"Leave, Spike," Dawn interjected before she turned and headed for the door, "leave and… and.." Once at the door, Dawn turned around and stared at the still stunned Spike. "I love you, Spike. The younger me has a crush on you, and I always thought you were cool… you know, as the bad-boy type. We became friends… close friends, and you became close with all of us. But that happened because of a set of circumstances. Those circumstances are not happening this time, but you still love Buffy. And that love… that infatuation will.." Dawn saw Spike shaking his head.

He was about to say that Dawn was wrong, that he would never harm her or Buffy, but the older Dawn interjected, "no, Spike. That love will push you to go all out on Buffy. You will hurt her… and you will hurt my younger self. I'm telling you this for the friendship and love I shared with my Spike… please leave Sunnydale. You want to prove to Buffy that you're different? Then protect people because you want to, not because you have to impress her."

All Spike could do was stand in his crypt as Dawn turned around and opened the door.

"Leave the city tonight, Spike," Dawn said as she stepped out, and then closed the door behind her. And all Spike could do was stand in stunned silence as he stared at the closed wooden door. His shoulders slumped forward as he turned around while Dawn was walked past the headstones in the graveyard. She had tears in her eyes as she remembered the Spike she knew; the Spike who died saving people from a demonic horde.

Dawn knew that this wasn't that Spike… this wasn't the self-sacrificing Spike. And somewhere in her heart, Dawn knew this Spike could never be the Spike she knew. All she could do was protect Buffy and her younger-self from anything this timeline's Spike possible betrayal. She had to protect Buffy… because she couldn't protect Buffy in her own timeline.

'I'm doing the right thing,' Dawn thought to herself as she continued to walk. 'I'm doing the right thing.' Dawn then hoped that Spike listens to her, she hoped that he would leave. She then sighed and looked at the palm of her hand. Dawn then remembered what her Willow taught her while they were in London, and whispered, "fulmen." She concentrated as a spark of electricity jumped from one finger to another, and then it jumped as several arcs on her palm. She crouched down as the arc of electricity travelled down her fingers once again before placing her hand on the ground.

Dawn released the charge into the Earth and then stood up. She looked at the palm of her hand and smiled as she stated walking once again, "next up, the rat."

TBC.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Stevenson Hall, 1930 hours.**

The thing with having one of the most powerful witches as a friend and lover was the magical training that would be useful in surviving the coming of the End on Earth. Dawn learned a lot from Willow on glamour spells, self-defensive shields, offensive bolts of lightning, and magic that would temporarily alter the perception of a target. All of these spells were useful on their journey to, and around, the decimated city of London in their quest for the Time Travel spell.

And now, it was thanks to that spell that Dawn travelled back in time to an alternate timeline.

It was after a few minutes of exiting the graveyard following her 'visit' with Spike and entering the main road that Dawn came upon, and hailed a bus. She asked the older grey-haired driver to take her to the U.C. Sunnydale campus as she stepped into the seat right behind the older man. As she sat down, Dawn was aware she was the only one on the bus. Taking her seat, Dawn then looked at herself in the rear-view mirror before looking out the windshield as the driver stepped on the accelerator. She turned her head to the left and watched as the headstones and trees rushed by her window before she looked straight ahead and leaned her back on the seat.

She glanced at the driver looking at her through the rear-view mirror before shifting his eyes back to the road.

"That's a nasty injury there," he said glancing back at the rear-view mirror again, his eyes on the patch covering Dawn's left eye, before shifting focus back to the road.

"Yeah," Dawn whispered looking back out the window to her left. And that's all she said as the driver looked back at her through the rear-view mirror once again. All he saw was Dawn leaning back on the seat with her eye glued to the window behind him. He saw the faraway look in her eyes before shifting his focus back onto the road. He thought that his passenger didn't want to discuss whatever happened to her eye, and he understood… so the driver just kept quiet and continued to drive the bus towards the U.C Sunnydale Campus.

Unknown to the driver, Dawn's faraway look was herself remembering the moment when Willow pulled her back into the real world after four months of being in a catatonic state. Dawn remembered hugging Willow tight as she opened her eye, and immediately started to sob while using her left arm to cover both eyes.

She remembered the attack on the base and the look on Buffy's face before she was torn apart. Dawn remembered everything as she sobbed while Willow hugged her tight; and Riley, who was standing to one side, placed a hand gently on Dawn's shoulder.

"Shhh… shhh," Dawn recalled Willow cooing while she stroked the back of Dawn's head.

Back in the bus, tears welled up in Dawn's eye as she remembered pulling back from Willow after sobbing for several minutes and then looking up at her through tear stained eyes. She saw that both Willow and Riley were crying as well, and that made Dawn sob even more as she closed her eye while feeling Willow hugging her again.

'Willow and Riley,' Dawn thought to herself as the bus took another turn, passed a sign that said 'U.C. Sunnydale, five miles.

'The only family I had left. The only ones.' Dawn closed her eyes as her mind travelled back to her own timeline and the first kiss she shared with Willow. The kiss was a surprise to herself and Willow- it was out of a sense of loss- Willow was about to be courted by one of the female civilians, and Dawn didn't want to lose her. It was after that kiss that Willow and Dawn went to a room and talked. The redhead told Dawn that she didn't know if Buffy would be okay with the both of them being in a relationship.

"And," Dawn remembered Willow shaking her head and waving her arms before the redhead continued speaking, "you never showed any interest in other girls and… I mean… you dated guys. You know? And…"

"I was afraid," Dawn admitted as she sat down on one of the four cots in the room, her fingers gripping the metallic edges of the cot, "I was afraid that I'd lose you to that Carol woman."

"I…" Willow said confused, "huh? What? Who's Carol?"

"The blonde?" Dawn waved her hand at the closed door to her left while her head was looking away from Willow.

"There's a lot of blondes," Willow pointed out as she sat next to Dawn, who looked up at the smiling face looking back at her.

"The one who…" Dawn stopped, sighed, and then shook her head before looking away from Willow again. "She knew that you and I are close. So she asked if you were seeing anyone and… and I…" Dawn then sighed again, shrugged her shoulders, and then continued, "I said I didn't know if you were seeing anyone and… and I don't know why I said that, and…." Dawn sighed, and then looked back up at Willow, who had her left eye-brow arched upwards, before continuing, "you and Riley are the people I'm closest to. He's with his wife so… I mean… I didn't want to lose you to her."

"Dawn, I…"

"And Buffy would say, 'yay'," Dawn exclaimed waving her hands up into the air, "she'd be happy that you and I… you know… I mean…"

"Or she'd look at me and say 'what the hell are you doing? Stop thinking about my sister', 'stop it… stop it'," Willow interjected as she performed a mangled impression of Buffy's voice that made Dawn chuckle. Willow stopped talking and stared at the laughing Dawn before reaching down and gently grabbing the brunette's hands. Dawn then stopped her laughter and looked down at Willow's hands, and then back up into her eyes, "Dawnie, we all feel Buffy's loss. Especially you, me, and Riley, since we've known her the longest. And… you feel her loss the most. I can feel how alone you feel… how sad you feel… I… I can't take advantage of that vulnerability."

"I…"

"You're afraid you'll lose me," Willow said as she gently squeezed Dawn's hands, "but you're not losing me. I'm not interested in this Carol person, or anyone else. And even if I were, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to be close to you." Willow gave Dawn a smile before the younger woman looked away, "you're just coming to terms with Buffy's loss, Dawnie." Dawn looked back up at Willow, the younger woman seeing the look of sadness in the redhead's eyes as she continued, "I can hear Buffy telling me that I'll be making a mistake if I allow something to start between us while you're still coming to grips with her death."

Dawn then looked away while Willow looked down at her own thumbs rubbing circles on the top of Dawn's hands.

"Then we mourn her together," Dawn whispered.

The both of them then got closer to each other and hugged. Willow held on tight to Dawn, and vice-versa. It would be a few days later that the woman known as Carol made her feelings known to Willow, but the redhead turned her down gently.

And it would be two months later that Dawn and Willow shared their first kiss. Their first real kiss, a kiss that wasn't borne out of desperation or a sense of impending loss

Five minutes later, the cab stopped moving and Dawn was brought out of her thoughts… thoughts of sharing that very first nervous kiss with Willow, by the driver who looked at the rear-view mirror and told her that they reached the U.C. Sunnydale Campus. Dawn nodded her head before getting off the seat, waving at the man, and then stepping down the stairs as the bus doors opened. She stepped onto the sidewalk next to the 'Welcome to U.C. Sunnydale' sign.

As the driver closed the doors to the bus, Dawn put her hands into the pockets of the jacket she was wearing before the bus drove off. She then walked past the sign and into the campus. The campus was still teeming with students as far as Dawn knew as she walked through the breezy campus. She saw the trees sway while the leaves rustled as she headed for Stevenson Hall. Dawn knew, or at least she hoped that Willow and Tara already left for the Magic Box where they were due to meet for a more detailed briefing on the alternate timeline, 'and Pizza.' Dawn thought while licking her lips, 'Oh God, how long has it been since just canned food we raided from run down malls and food depots?' Dawn shook her head as she hurried her stride. She wanted to get her next task over with as quickly as possible.

It was only thirty minutes ago that Dawn left the Summers house, "I'm just gonna take a walk around, Buffy," the older Dawn said as she opened the front door. Before she stepped out onto the porch, Dawn turned and faced her sister and her younger self, "it's been years… well, for me anyway, since Sunnydale fell into the crater. And, I just wanna see the city again."

"It's about to go dark, Dawnie," Buffy reminded her.

"I'll see you in the Magic Box, Buffy," Dawn said after she kissed Buffy's cheeks and then patted her younger self's shoulder. And then she walked out the door and onto the porch, and then she went down the stairs and to the sidewalk. At the main road outside the neighbourhood, Dawn caught a bus to the graveyard.

And now, she just took another bus that stopped outside the U.C. Sunnydale where she was now walking towards Stevenson Hall.

**The Magic Box, at that same time.**

"All I'm saying is that I'm worried, Will," Tara whispered as she opened the door to the Magic Box and strode in with Willow next to her. The both of them had finished their classes before heading back to their dorm rooms, putting away their book bags, and then left for the Magic Box where they were supposed to meet up with the older Dawn. Tara frowned at her girlfriend who gently squeezed her hand as the others- the younger Dawn who was at the table with two books piled one on top of another and reading another one before she looked up; Xander, who was next to Buffy and Dawn while Anya, at the counter cashing out a customer, looked up at them as well. Hearing the chime, Giles walked out of the back office and nodded at Willow and Tara before he walked around the counter and to the table.

"What's up?" asked Buffy as Willow walked up to the chair next to her while Tara sat down next to Willow. "What got you so worried, Tara?"

Dawn waved at Tara and Willow, who returned the wave, before the latter turned to Buffy with a chuckle and said, "Tara's worried about the older Dawn."

Buffy and the younger Dawn looked at each other, and then at Tara while Giles was fixing his glasses. The older man asked, in a whisper since there were customers within earshot at the counter, what had Tara worried. He knew that Tara had a unique ability to sense feelings and emotions, and if there was something that she was worried about… then it was likely the Scoobies needed to worry about it as well.

"She's… I mean when she came over to our place… when she saw Amy in the cage, she was angry," Tara whispered looking at the others all looking back at her, "and I mean really angry."

"And I told Tara that's probably because…" Willow glanced at the customers who were given a bag containing their purchases. She glanced away as the customers turned and began walking away towards the entrance. As Anya closed the register and then walked around the counter to hear what was being said at the table, the door chimes jingled as the door opened, and the two customers walked out. Willow then looked back at the others and said, in a normal tone, "because she travelled back in time from a war. A war that destroyed the world."

"There's no way to know what that kind of a situation would do to someone," Giles spoke agreeing with Tara that there could be something to worry about, "Luckily she had Buffy, Willow, and… well…. Whoever remained to look out for her."

"At least until Buffy died," Dawn said as she turned her head to look at Buffy, who then placed her arm around Dawn's shoulders and pulled her protectively close.

"Well, I was there after she died," Willow said and the younger Dawn grinned.

"But this anger was directed at Amy," Tara reiterated, "her anger… her hate… I mean…" Tara turned to Willow who looked back at her, and said, "when she and Buffy came to our room, I felt it, Will. Dawn was so angry at her."

"Amy was close to the person who killed the other you, Tara," Anya pointed out.

"And she knows that everything's going to be alright now," Buffy reminded them, "there's no war now. Heck, that war won't happen."

"But…" Tara was about to remind them about Dawn saying she would take care of the people who killed her. But she was interrupted by Giles.

"I do believe we need to have another sit down with the older Dawn," Giles said, "true, there is no war against Twilight in this timeline, but she experienced it. She lived it. We need to counsel her so that she could deal with the after-effects of participating in that war."

"Can you, I mean, counsel her?" the younger Dawn asked.

"I… I know some people…" Giles then noticed the worried look on Buffy's face before shaking his head, "no, Buffy, this isn't the Council. I know some people who belong to the Devon Coven. I'll call them when I ask them to begin training Willow."

"Okay," Buffy sighed with relief. There was no way she was putting the sister she got from another timeline in the hands of the Watcher's Council.

"I agree that we should help Dawn," Tara said gently, "but I have this bad feeling that… that she'll do something.. something bad. I… I… think we should get Amy out of our dorm room and into Buffy's house."

"Tara, you think Dawn... I mean the older Dawn could somehow break into our room and kill Amy?" Willow asked with a look of expectation on her face. She then leaned forward to Tara and jokingly said, "you think the older Dawn's going to come into the room when we're all there and kill Amy?"

"If.. if I had to face everything that she had to face," Dawn spoke after spending time deep in thought while the others talked around her. She saw everyone turning towards her, and a part of her started to get nervous about saying what she was thinking. Dawn then sighed, pushed aside her doubts, and continued to speak her mind, "she saw Tara's body. She knows who killed her. And if Amy helped him or her in any way, I would want revenge."

"No, you wouldn't," Buffy said.

"I would if it would protect the people I love," Dawn whispered as she looked at Buffy. "When Tara had her mind sucked by Glory, Willow wanted revenge. And she went to Glory's apartment alone, Buffy. She was nearly killed because she wanted revenge on the person who harmed her love; but Willow still did it.. If anyone harmed you… If I had the chance to take vengeance on the one who killed Tara, or on the one who killed you? Then I would. No matter what the consequences were."

Buffy looked into Dawn's eyes hoping that her younger sister was just joking. But she knew deep in her heart that Dawn wasn't joking, Buffy knew that her sister would do what she had to do if the situation was just right. There was a part of her that didn't want to believe it, a part that didn't want to believe that Dawn was a killer. But they were talking about a Dawn Buffy realized she didn't really know, a Dawn from another timeline who had to go to war.

'I keep telling myself that this is a war we're fighting,' Buffy thought to herself as she placed her hand on Dawn's left cheek, 'Giles tells me that this is a war, a war to protect everyone. In the other timeline, I failed. The world fell and we had to fight harder and… did we fight ruthlessly? What did the other me teach Dawn? What did…' Buffy shook her head and tried not to think too much about what could have happened immediately after the Fall. She instead turned to Tara and asked her to perform a location spell.

"Are you sure?" Xander asked.

"It'll make me feel better knowing that she's not near the university, or Tara's dorm room," Buffy said before turning to the younger Dawn, "I still have to believe that you, or her, won't murder. I know you'll want vengeance if anything happened to me. I know you want to kill whoever, or whatever it is that kills me, and I'm telling you not to."

"Buff…"

"If I was the one who jumped," Buffy said as she placed another hand on Dawn's cheek, "I would have told you to live for me. To live your life and look forward."

"How could I?" Dawn asked as tears welled in her eyes in disbelief at what Buffy was saying.

"Because you'd have Giles, Xander, Willow, Tara, and Anya," Buffy whispered before kissing her forehead. She then turned her head and looked at her friends, and then at Dawn again, "they would keep you safe." Dawn closed her eyes as Buffy kissed her forehead again. The Slayer then turned to Tara while pulling Dawn closer, "Tara, can you get a location spell going?"

"Yea," Tara said before she and Willow rushed to gather the ingredients. They were followed by Anya who grabbed a notepad so that she could write down the charges for the ingredients they needed.

**Stevenson Hall, at that same time.**

The older Dawn approached the stairs that led up to the Stevenson Hall entrance. She mumbled a spell that projected the glamour of one of the dead Slayers in her future to protect her identity. Dawn walked then continued to walk up the steps while glancing up at the security cameras and smiled. She knew that the cameras would see the glamour and not her real self. Dawn then grabbed the handles on the glass door after walking up the stairs and moved into the lobby.

Fully aware that the others may want to check up on her via a location spell, Dawn was thankful to Willow, her Willow, for showing her a deception spell. It was on the way to London that Dawn learned the spell since it was routinely patrolled by Twilight's demonic horde. The horde had killed most of the humans but kept a few as their pets; while others were kept as livestock to breed, and as food. The spell was so that the demons, which could sense life, would be scattered by electrical charges infused with life force; charges that would run through the city and serve as a distraction for Willow and Dawn to move unseen in their cloaking spell.

'We didn't know if the cloaking spell would work against the horde's in London,' Dawn thought to herself as she walked up the stairs next to the front desk, 'they worked in St. Louis and in New Orleans, but rumour was that the hordes in London were infused with the magic in the area. Luckily they didn't pick us up, but it was funny watching them run around looking for the two newly arrived life signs.'

Dawn had the electrical charge she released in the graveyard after talking to Spike move around the city. It was imbued with some of her life force while she kept herself cloaked from the magic of any location spell, 'that way they don't get suspicious when they don't see the real me.' And Dawn was right. When Tara and Willow performed the Location spell, everyone saw that the red dot marking the two Dawn's on the map laid on the floor had indicated the older Dawn was walking past a church.

Truthfully, the older Dawn wasn't sure when they would check in on her, or if they would. But she knew that if they did decide to check in on her, then it was most likely after Willow and Tara finished their classes and met up with the others at the Magic Box.

And Dawn didn't see the look of relief on Tara's face as she placed a hand on her chest before saying that she was glad to be wrong. While Giles recommended that they give Dawn her privacy, the older Dawn was standing outside Tara and Willow's door. She raised her arm and placed her hand above the electronic door lock before whispering, "resero".

Dawn then took off her jacket while the mechanism in the door panel, the same panel where the residents would slide their key cards in and out, hummed. And then there was a click. Dawn then used her jacket to grab the handle and then pushed it down to open the now unlocked door so that she would leave no fingerprints. She pushed the door open as the lock re-engaged with a humming sound, walked into the room, and then closed the door behind her. Inside the room, Dawn then dropped her jacket onto the carpeted floor before she walked towards the cage at the left corner of Tara's bed.

And it was then Dawn heard the rat squeaking in panic.

"Guess rats do sense when they're in trouble, huh, Amy?" the older Dawn mocked as she crouched down and aimed a finger at the rat who was running around in the case, squeaking all the while.

"Goodbye, Amy," Dawn said as she pointed a finger before whispering, "Fulmen."

A small burst of lightning hit Amy and, as the electrical energy crackled around the rat's body, she collapsed sideways… her body convulsing. Dawn was breathing calmly as a smile formed on her face, while she coldly stared at the panicked rat which convulsed for a few more seconds before lying still on the newspapers covering the bottom of the cage. The rat's heart stopped thanks to the electrical charge.

Dawn stood up before turning around. She grabbed her jacket off the floor, and then used it to open the door once again before closing it shut once back in the hallway. Taking a deep breath while her glamour stayed over her real body, Dawn proceeding to walk away from Tara's room.

"One down," she whispered while mentally striking Amy off her list, 'now, I go to the Magic Box. Tomorrow? Well, Warren, tomorrow it's your turn.' Reaching the top of the stairs, Dawn smiled to herself, "I'm hungry."

TBC.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Magic Box, thirty minutes later.**

The conversation about Dawn lasted for a few more minutes after the location spell was performed before everyone started speculating what their lives were like in the other timeline. The only one not doing at the moment was Tara; her mind was elsewhere hoping that she was wrong in regards to her suspicions about the older Dawn. At the same time, she felt Willow's hands around her arm when the redhead and the other Scoobies began talking about their love lives in the other timeline. While they were talking, Anya ordered some pizza from the phone lying on the counter before heading back to the table. She and Tara caught each other's eyes; the both of them knew they were in the same boat in the other timeline.

The both of them were dead.

Xander, who had already proposed marriage to Anya a few nights before the final battle against Glory, turned his head and looked at the woman he loved. Anya sat down next to him, a look of sadness on her face, before forcing herself to look away from Tara to Xander with a smile on her lips. However, as Xander smiled at Anya, he did notice the look that Anya and Willow shared while wondering to himself what the two of them were thinking. It was then that Xander looked back at Tara who looked away as well while everyone else was busy talking amongst themselves.

'I should ask them… but maybe not now… or is now a good time?' Xander then came to a decision before leaning sideways and whispering into Anya's ear, "are you okay?" Anya then turned to Xander and nodded her head with a small smile. However, Xander mentally noted that the smile never reached her eyes. 'I'll talk to her in private later then," he thought. Xander then glanced over at Tara who was eyeing Willow before placing her head on the redhead's shoulder. Xander then looked back towards Anya and whispered in her ear that he loved her.

A smile formed on Anya's face while they stared at each other. Xander then turned around and simply watched everyone; he scanned the looks of curiosity on their faces as they spoke to each other. Xander guessed that all of them fought bravely against Twilight before they were killed. It forced him to wonder to himself, 'what did I do? How did I die?' He then turned to look at Anya, and then at Tara, both of whom were still listening silently with sadness. And he hated seeing the both of them like this. Tara was his friend, and she heard that was dead in another timeline… a timeline where Willow abused magic and went out of control. He then glanced at Willow and wondered if she had already been showing signs of excessive magic use. He thought of a few times when Willow and Tara did use magic, but he didn't know if it counted as abusing magic.

'Giles said he'll ask that one Coven to help train Willow, and Tara said she'll join her too,' Xander thought to himself.

Xander then turned to Giles and sorrow went through his body at the thought of Giles being murdered; his neck snapped by a possessed Angel no less. Xander then looked at Buffy and Dawn- the two sisters who loved each other. So much so that the older Dawn was trapped in a catatonic state; just as Buffy was trapped in a catatonic state when Glory had taken the younger Dawn away a few days back. Xander felt a chill go through him at imagining standing over Buffy's grave. He wondered what was inscribed on the headstone as he thought about what could have happened if the portal was opened in his timeline.

Xander looked at all the Scoobies and then ended up looking at Anya. He could see that she was still sad. And he hated seeing her sad. He didn't know if it was because her sadness reminded him of his mother before his father would beat her when the latter was drinking too much. Xander didn't want to be that part of Henry Harris; he wanted it to be because he really didn't want her to be sad… because he loved her.

"Guys," Xander said as he looked at Anya, who shook her head when she noticed that her fiancée was staring longingly at her. Anya seemed as if her mind was somewhere else before she turned her head and asked Xander why he was staring.

"It's rude to stare. That's what you tell me, and…"

"I love this girl," Xander whispered as he reached out and held Anya's hand. Everyone stopped talking while Anya stared at Xander in disbelief. She was in disbelief not for the fact that he said that he loved her, Anya was aware everyone knew that. No, Anya was in disbelief because Xander said that they needed to wait for the right time to make the announcement that they were engaged, and she thought that she would have to wait a very long time.

"Xand?" Willow said as she and the others looked up after Xander stood up and pulled Anya to her feet. Buffy and Dawn looked at each other while Giles fixed his glasses when Xander announced he asked Anya to marry him. Everyone was so silent that any of them would be able to hear a pin drop onto the floor.

Instead, they had to settle for the chime ringing as the main door opened. The sound shook everyone out of their surprise as the ones seated around the table looked behind Xander and Anya to find the older Dawn closing the door behind her. She then walked down the step while looking surprised at the sudden attention being paid at her, and then all attention turning to Xander and Anya. The Older Dawn stared at Xander and Anya, at how they were positioned and holding hands.

'Xander must have announced their engagement,' The older Dawn wondered, as she walked towards them. She then wondered if she should tell them about what happened after their engagement in her timeline.

"We… ummm…," Xander said as he looked at the Older Dawn, and then he and Anya turned to the others while Anya grinned. "Anya and I… we're engaged."

"Oh my God!" squealed Willow as she jumped off her seat and then rushed around the table to hug Xander. A surprised Buffy and Dawn stood up before rushing around the table- younger dawn hugged Anya while Buffy hugged both Willow and Xander, who were still hugging each other. Giles then placed a hand on Anya's shoulder. He glanced over at the older Dawn walking up behind Anya, and placing a hand on her other shoulder before whispering, "Congratulations."

With Willow and Buffy parted, Dawn then went on to hug Xander while Anya turned towards the older Dawn who hugged her tight. After Tara hugged Xander, Giles shook his hand while, at the same time, the older Dawn parted from Anya. The older Dawn then turned her head towards Xander before walking up to him and hugging him tight, at the same time wondering if she should tell Anya and Xander about the doubts they would later have about their relationship.

'No,' the older Dawn thought to herself as she stepped back from Xander with a smile on her face, 'this timeline is different. I think things will already be different.' She then whispered, "congratulations, Xander."

**The Summers Home, 2200 hours.**

Dawn wondered what it meant as music played around her.

She was sitting on the couch in the living room with a cup in her hand while Anya was dancing in the middle of the room with Xander. She wondered what it meant to not have sympathy or regret for killing Amy. Ever since doing the deed, Dawn had been thinking to herself that she had done the right thing. The future was fluid now, and anything could happen, 'but I know Amy is dangerous. I know Warren is dangerous, I know what he's capable of,' Dawn thought. She glanced at her younger self talking to Willow and Buffy.

'Willow', the older Dawn thought as she looked away from the younger redhead and then glanced up at the decorations around the living room. It was an hour ago that they returned home after changing the pizza delivery to the Summers home instead of the Magic Box. It was an hour ago, soon after returning home, that Willow used her magic to make the decorations appear after Anya said that she wished there were decorations for her engagement party. At that time, the older Dawn glanced at a worried Tara, who glanced back at her. The older Dawn then looked away and walked over to the couch. She passed by Giles who had a disappointed look on his face as Willow turned to him and Tara and said that she used her magic to make Anya happy.

Now, the older Dawn sat back on the couch as she remembered Tara leading Willow into the kitchen. She knew what they were going to talk about, and so the older Dawn sighed and looked away to the younger Dawn dancing with Xander, and Anya talking to Giles and Buffy. And then at Willow and Tara, the two of them dancing together following their argument about magic use.

'They've always made-up after their arguments,' Dawn thought as she watched Tara holding onto Willow as they danced, their heads laying sideways on the others shoulder. The older Dawn wanted to go away as she looked away from Tara and Willow. She wanted to leave the house and just walk aimlessly so that she didn't have to see Tara and Willow dancing together, and have her heart break at the woman she loved be with someone else.

When she last looked up, the older Dawn saw Tara and Willow kissing. Dawn tried to remain calm as she looked away, especially when she sensed that someone was watching her. Glancing sideways, the older Dawn saw her young self staring at her before breaking away from Buffy and Giles. She was heading for her older self.

'What happens now?' the older Dawn looked away from her younger self and tilted her head down towards the couch cover. As the music around seemed to go silent, as everything around her seemed to slow down, her thoughts turned back to her first night with the older Willow in the resistance base.

The older Dawn recalled what she asked the older Willow the morning after sharing the same bed with each other. The older Dawn closed her eyes while gripping the plastic cup in her hand as she remembered looking up into Willow's green eyes. The older Dawn spoke in a whisper as a smile formed on Willow's face while she brushed her fingers along Dawn's cheek while the former's body lay on top of her- the both of them under a blanket. Willow's brushed the scar on the older Dawn's cheek, and then she brushed the scar on Dawn's eye… the soft fingers sending a tingle along Dawn's skin as they stayed in their cot covered under a warm blanket.

"Now I just wanna lie with you," Willow whispered before she kissed the older Dawn's cheeks, and then pulled back. "I wanna kiss you." Willow leaned in for a kiss as the older Dawn closed her eyes, kissed for a few seconds and then the redhead pulled back. Dawn opened her eyes again and listened, "and I wanna love you." Older Dawn then smiled at Willow, "I… When I die, I want to be able to look Buffy right in the eyes and tell her that I love you." The older Dawn then placed a hand on Willow's left cheek while the latter continued, "and I want to love you just as I… I loved…"

"Tara," the older Dawn whispered as she stared at Willow, who blushed, "she'll be happy, I know it."

"That's why I'll love you as much as I loved her, Dawnie," Willow whispered bringing her head down until their noses brushed against each other, "and…"

"Hey?" The music around the older Dawn came back into focus when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head and then looked up to find Xander and the younger Dawn looking back down at her. 'I should tell him about the wedding, and… no… just don't… whatever happens will happen,' Older Dawn thought as Xander sat down next to her while asking if she was alright with the younger Dawn siting on the other side, "you look a bit out of it," Xander said, "listen, I know you said that Anya, I mean… you know what happens and… I mean… are we happy? Before she… I mean before we go our separate ways, are we happy?"

"Before that," the younger Dawn said as the older one turned her head, "have we.. you.. kknow… did we have a boyfriends?"

"Yea," Older Dawn said while recalling that she cheated on a Thricewise with someone else, and that she was cursed for a little while; she had been a giant, a female centaur, and then a doll, before she regained her normal body. She stared at her younger self while continuing to say, "it didn't end that well between us." Dawn then turned her head to Xander, and then back to the younger Dawn before leaning forward, "I still had that crush on Xander."

"It's good to know I still had my magnetic pull in the future," Xander grinned as the older and younger Dawn's looked back at him, and then at each other. "Well…" Xander said, "at least until I died."

"Who else?" asked younger Dawn as the older Dawn and Xander looked at each other. The young version of Dawn wanted to change the subject, she didn't want to know how Xander died… she didn't want to know how many of them died. "Was there anyone else, or… oh… oh… what…"

"There was no-one else," Older Dawn said as she placed a hand on her younger self's shoulder before she leaned forward and whispered into her ear, "we need to talk." The older Dawn pulled back and stared at the look of confusion on the younger Dawn's face, "later. Not now."

Dawn nodded her head before she widened her eyes and then leaned forward, "have we… you know…"

"What?" Older Dawn asked.

"You know," Dawn winked. However, both the older Dawn and Xander stared at the young Dawn with confused looks. The younger brunette then leaned forward and whispered, "sex."

"Oh." Older Dawn said.

"Oh God," Xander cried as he put his hands over his ears.

The older Dawn grinned at her younger self, and then placed a finger on her own lips and winked. At the same time, Xander was shaking his head before he put his hands back down and changed the topic of conversation, "okay, Dawn, now you answer my question. Will Anya and I be happy?"

'I need to tell him,' Dawn thought to herself as she looked at Xander while contemplating a way to answer the question. She remembered how confused Xander was at the wedding after being shown the possible future; she remembered how angry Anya was at the wedding, and after it, when Xander ran away. The older Dawn remembered the resentment from Anya, and Xander's anger when Anya had sex with Spike in the Magic Box. The older Dawn remembered everything in the three seconds it took to give her answer, "the both of you will have to work at it," Dawn shifted her body towards Xander and held his hands, "the both of you will have doubts and…"

"I don't have doubts, I…"

The older Dawn breathed in before whispering, "I know…" she then nodded at her younger self, "we know you two long each other, Xander. Any relationship has doubt about how a couple would complement each other."

"But…." Xander said before being interrupted.

"In my timeline, you never physically hurt Anya," Dawn said, choosing her words carefully as Xander and the younger Dawn listened, "the two of you love each other, and at the same time you have doubts." Dawn knew the needed to be careful, without making any overt revelations about the disaster that could still happen if she didn't kill the demon responsible for braking the wedding. She knew that Xander still had doubts, she could see it on his face when mentioning that the Xander she knew had doubts as well. "But the both of you talked. The both of you talked about your doubts and... and you two were so happy."

"Happy until…" Xander glanced at the laughing Anya who was dancing with the younger Dawn. He then turned back to the older Dawn and there was a sadness in his voice, "until Anya died."

"Yea, but you and her… it's something that… that was real," Dawn whispered as Buffy walked over with Giles. The older Dawn then looked up at the both of them and smiled, "hey, Buffy."

"So, what's the stitch," Buffy asked as she saw next to the younger Dawn.

"We were just talking, Buffy," the older Dawn said while Xander looked behind Giles, and at Anya who was checking some music CD's with Tara and Willow. Xander then looked back up at Buffy and Giles before pushing himself off the couch and towards Anya. AS Xander pulled Anya back onto the dance floor, Buffy turned to her two sisters and asked, "so, what were you guys talking about."

"Apparently, I'll have sex," the younger Dawn said with a grin as Buffy opened her eyes wide in stunned silence while Giles nervously mumbled as he took off his glasses.

"Dawn," Buffy said once she found her voice and stared at the older version of her sister, "what did you tell yourself."

"Oh nothing," the older Dawn chuckled as she took a sip of her drink.

"I…."

"Dawnie!," Tara yelled as she rushed to the older Dawn, and pulled her up before pulling to the middle of the living room where Anya and Xander were dancing. She joined them, Tara, and Willow in the middle of the room as the music played. Giles, Buffy, and the younger Dawn stared at the group before the younger Dawn whispered, "I… I mean she… I mean the older me looked sad."

"This isn't the right time to talk about what happened to her in the war," Giles whispered.

"Tomorrow then," Buffy whispered before turning to the younger Dawn, "and you."

"What?" the younger Dawn said, "I had to ask to ask her."

"Well, no more questions about… you know," Buffy said while the younger Dawn sighed and then shrugged her shoulders.

"Tomorrow, then," Giles said staring at the older Dawn, "tomorrow we find out everything we need to know about the war. Tomorrow we begin helping Dawn recover."

TBC.

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Stevenson Hall, 2330 hours.**

The door mechanism clicked before there was a low thud from the other side of the door. The medium sized room stood in darkness as the door was pushed open by Willow who was passionately kissing Tara. The blonde witch had both hands on either side of Willow's face as she backed into the room while Willow walked forward, and then closed the door – all while continuing to kiss her girlfriend.

After a second, as Tara pulled Willow closer and tighter into her, they parted while panting. They were surrounded by darkness, but Tara could still see Willow clearly a few seconds later after her eyes had gotten used to the darkness. The redhead's green eyes were smouldering as they pierced Tara's very soul- and the blonde witch felt a feeling of warmth travel up and down her spine.

"I'll turn on the light," Willow whispered looking down at Tara's lips, and then back into the blonde's eyes. But Tara continued to hold onto Willow; not letting her go.

Tara smirked before leaning into Willow's left side, and then whispered into her ear, "forget the light. Forget everything, Willow. Forget magic, forget… just forget everything else except us," Tara slipped her hands under Willow's shirt, her hands gripping the redhead's waist tightly while gently nibbling on her earlobe. Willow gasped as the both of them stood in place- Tara nibbling her ear and running her hands up and down Willow's sides. Tara's fingers brushed Willow's skin as they travelled up while Willow, panting and her eyes closed, started to unbuckle Tara's belt. The redhead was in a hurry as she, after unbuckling the belt, went on to unbutton the front of Tara's jeans.

Willow opened her mouth and released a gasp when Tara gently bit down the length of her neck before kissing each bitemark. At the same time, the redhead unzipped Tara's jeans' front. Biting her lower lip while her heart raced thanks to the sensations going through her body, Willow slipped the edge of the top of her fingers into the sides of Tara's jeans and was about ready to pull them down when she suddenly stopped.

"Will?" Tara asked when Willow pulled away, the redhead looked around in the darkness with her eyes narrowed. Tara could see Willow spinning towards Amy's cage, and even in the dark, Tara could see that Willow's brows were furrowed. "Will?"

"Amy?" Willow whispered turning away from Tara, and then walking towards the cage set next to the bed she shared with Tara. It was then that Tara realized that Amy hadn't squeaked- it was something the rat would do when Tara and Willow were about to make love to each other; it was as if the human Amy was telling them that she was still present in the room. The rat would squeak even when one of them entered the room as a form of 'hello'. Before Willow could ask Tara to turned on the lights, Tara zipped her jeans back up, and then buckled her belt, while rushing to the light switch.

"Watch your eyes," Tara said switching the lights overhead back on.

After a second of getting used to the bright light after staying in the dark room, Tara and Willow's vision cleared. Willow reached back for Tara's hand, a gesture the latter reciprocated. They grasped each other's hand tight, before they slowly made their way around the bed. Their heartbeats were racing with every step they took towards the cage.

And the both of them stopped upon seeing the rat laying on its side, "no," Willow whispered as she brought her hands up to cover her mouth.

"Goddess," whispered Tara shaking her head in sadness, while Willow released her hand and rushed to the cage before getting on her knees.

'Amy!" Willow cried, tears welling in her eyes, as she opened the cage door. Tara had her eyes opened wide while she looked around the room for anything that was out of place; she knew that the door was locked shut, she knew that no one could get into the room without the keycard, 'but someone did. Someone got in, and…..' Tara then turned to the main door and tried to remember if the door made a 'click' sound after swiping the key card.

Tara closed her eyes and recalled the moment she slid the keycard into the machine, 'yea, the lock whirred, and the clicked.' Tara opened her eyes to see Willow's shoulders trembling.

'It did, it did,' Tara thought to herself before turning back towards Willow whose shoulders were trembling as she got up to her feet and turned around, "is… is she….?" Tara stammered while Willow despondently stared at the dead rat in the palms of her hands. Tara knew she didn't need to ask. She couldn't see the rat's lifeforce, its aura; there was nothing there to see.

"She… she's dead, Tara," Willow looked up at her lover with tearful eyes, "she.. she's dead."

Tara and Willow stared at each other for a few seconds before the former rushed up to the redhead and hugged her tight. Tara didn't know Amy when she was a human, but Willow did- and from what the redhead told her, Amy was a kind girl who was caught up in her abusive mother's schemes. Willow told her that Amy was living with her father who treated her much better than her mother ever could- that she was finally coming to terms with what happened to her when her mother took over her body.

"And… and now she's dead," Willow cried softly as she held on to the rat in her hands which were crushed against her chest while Tara hugged her.

Tara didn't want to think of the one person she was sure had a motive to kill Amy, 'Dawn, did you do this?'. She didn't want to think about the older Dawn breaking into their room- violating their privacy, and then killing Amy. Tara didn't want to think that because it simply wasn't possible, at least that's what she thought. She and the others had seen Dawn walking past a church when she ran her location spell, and the older Dawn made it to the Magic Box several minutes later.

'She didn't have time.. she couldn't have had the time,' Tara thought to herself, 'or… or did she?'

"We… we need to.. to bury her," Willow whispered as Tara held her tight, "we… we… need to bury her."

"I'll call Xander, Anya, and Buffy," Tara whispered into Willow's ear before pulling back. She placed her hands-on Willow's shoulders and stared into her red teary eyes, "we'll bury her in the park." Willow nodded her head before she turned and placed the dead rat on the top of the cage. While Tara walked up to the phone, and then picked up the receiver, Willow was searching for a show box while wondering how it was that Amy died- but that thought lasted for a few seconds before she turned her head and stared at the dead Amy.

'It's been nearly three years since she became a rat,' Willow thought to herself, 'could she be dead because of old age?'

"Willow?" Tara whispered after putting down the phone. Willow looked back at her and realized that she had been so absorbed in her own grief about a friend dying that she hadn't realized Tara had already called and spoken with Buffy and Xander. Willow smiled at Tara after the latter said that Buffy, Xander, and Anya were coming over to their dorm room, "and then we're leaving for the park."

All Willow could do was nod her head in acceptance. She told herself mentally that as a rat, Amy reached an old age. Willow told herself that it was simply Amy's time to go, and that she failed to return Amy to her human form.

"I should have done more to help her," Willow whispered as Tara grabbed an empty shoe box from the closet and opened the top cover.

"You did everything you could, Willow," Tara whispered as Willow placed the rat in the box, "I… I know how hard you research for a spell to get her back."

"Don't understand, Tara," Willow said looked up into the blonde's eyes, "she was running around the cage and in the roller this morning. She was… I mean… she was active and alive, and…"

Tara then interrupted Willow by saying something that she hoped wasn't true. Tara hated herself for saying it out loud, but it was in the back of her mind, "Willow, we all know how angry Dawn… the older one I mean… was at Amy. I…"

"Tara," Willow shook her head with a frown on her face, "how can you even think that?"

"I hate thinking that," Tara explained, "I hate.. I hate thinking that Dawn could break into our room and then… then murder an innocent, and…"

"Tara," Willow gently said after taking the shoe box from her and laying it on the floor. Willow then stood tall and took a step forward before holding Tara's hands, "we saw where Dawn was when we did the location spell. She was nowhere close to the university, and…"

"I felt her rage when she saw Amy earlier," Tara interrupted, "and.. and back at the Magic Box… when.. when Xander announced his engagement, I didn't sense that rage. I…"

"Because she was happy for Xander," Willow pointed out while looking into Tara's eyes, "and she has a right to be angry, Tara. What little she told us about Amy.. I mean… the other Amy. Dawn indicated Amy had done some bad things."

"I…"

"Baby," Willow whispered caressing Tara's cheek, "do you really think any of the two Dawn's we know would break in and then kill an innocent?"

Tara closed her eyes and sighed. She had to agree with Willow because she knew the redhead was telling the truth. Tara knew that the two Dawn's wouldn't harm innocents, that the older one wouldn't kill since this wasn't a war… at least not the same war she had been through. Tara hoped the older Day knew that no matter how angry she was at Amy, the latter was still innocent. But Tara couldn't help but listened to the soft voice in the back of her head that kept on saying the older Dawn was dangerous.

Tara simply sighed, nodded her head, and then hugged Willow.

**The Summers Residence, 2350 hours.**

The older Dawn lay on her side with her eye closed, the patch that covered her left eye on the top of the bedside table. Her back was to the door which led out to the hallway outside. It was nearly forty minutes ago that Xander and Anya left the house for their apartment so that they could, as Anya put it, celebrate their engagement. The older Dawn could only giggle while Xander said, "Anya!" before looking at the others and trying to make a joke that they were going home to just sleep since they were tired. Once the two of them left, then it was Giles' turn, and the Tara and Willow. Finally, it was just herself, Buffy, and her younger self in the house.

"Dawnie," Buffy said looking at the younger Dawn, "go to bed. You've got school tomorrow."

"But, I'm not sleepy, and… and I want to hear what I have to say," Dawn begged motioning at the older Dawn who had her hands in her pockets. The younger Dawn then turned to look at her older self, "come on, I wanna hear stories of another life I could have had, and…"

"It was a fun life," the older Dawn said, "but Buffy's right, you need to go to bed, and…"

"Please…" Dawn begged, "I…" She then turned to Buffy and begged, "ten minutes? Five minutes, I…"

"I…" Buffy looked a the younger Dawn, and then at the older one. The Slayer's eyes were begging for help… it was the same eyes that he older Dawn remembered before they were hardened by the war. The older Dawn remembered what Buffy was like after she returned from Heaven, she was out of it… she couldn't connect to the older Dawn in the other timeline which exacerbated her kleptomania phase. The older Dawn looked into the eyes of her sister when she was still innocent.. eyes that silently asked Giles for help to take over parenting duties. Eyes that… that showed she couldn't be a parent to the younger Dawn.

It was then that Dawn's heart ached at how much trouble she caused her Buffy after the death of their mother. And the older Dawn also remembered when Buffy took parenting too far- and the former ended up skipping school before Buffy was called to the principal's office. And then there was the visit by the woman from Family Services. As the older Dawn stared at the eyes of her sister, she remembered the incident where Buffy became invisible, 'the first thing she did was make that woman's supervisor think she was going nuts. But the new person they sent approved Buffy having guardianship over me. Maybe that's something to change now.'

"Maybe she could stay a little," Buffy said staring at the older Dawn, "and…"

"We were almost separated, Buffy," the older Dawn said looking at her surprised sister,, and then at her younger self who was just as stunned. Before the two of them could speak, the older Dawn continued, "after you were brought back from the dead, there was a woman who came by from Family Services."

"Oh," Buffy said looking away for a second, her eyebrows furrowed before looking back at the Older Dawn, "but I'm guessing everything went okay and…"

"Buffy said that they could separate us," Dawn interjected as she recalled the moment I the dining room when Buffy yelled out that if Dawn didn't get her act together, then the both of them would be separated, "that I'd be taken away."

"Then help Buffy," the older Dawn said with regret in her voice as she recalled her own mistakes, about how she tormented Buffy back in her timeline, "she can't do this alone." And then the older Dawn turned to Buffy, "she needs you Buffy. She needs you to be.. well, like mom."

"And you don't need me?" Buffy asked staring at the older Dawn.

"There can't be two Dawn's in Sunnydale," the older Dawn said while thinking, 'after all, I still have to kill Cordelia, Angel, and Connor's mother, Darla.' Dawn explained that she'll probably leave in a few days, "but I wanna spend some time with the both of you, with Tara, Willow, Xander, Anya, Giles… I want to spend as much time as I can before I leave."

"I…"

Buffy stopped talking when the phone rang. She told the older Dawn to not do anything rashly while rushing over to the phone. The older Dawn smiled at Buffy before glancing at her younger self staring right back at her. The older Dawn walked right up to the younger one and whispered as she leaned into her ear, "we need to talk." The older Dawn pulled back and looked into her younger self's eyes before glancing at Buffy who gasped on the phone.

"Buffy?" the younger Dawn asked while the older Dawn stared at her younger self's profile and thought to herself that Dawn would never know the things she had gone through. The older Dawn then looked away and looked at Buffy who nodded her head with the phone on her ears.

She then said, with a cracked voice, "I'll be right there." Buffy then put the phone down and stared at the receiver for a few seconds before turning around, "that was Tara. Umm… Amy died."

"Amy?" the younger Dawn said as the older Dawn remained expressionless- the latter doing her best not to smile at the news that one of the people who caused her family so much pain was dead. The older Dawn glanced at the younger Dawn rushing up to Buffy and placing her hand on her shoulder and listened, "Amy the rat?"

"She died," Buffy whispered shaking her head before looking at the younger Dawn, and then at the older version of her sister. The older version didn't look away, in fact she gave nothing away other than saying that she wasn't going to cry over "the rat's death."

"Dawn," Buffy shook her head at the older version of her sister while the younger one remained next to Buffy and looked on at the interaction between the older Dawn and Buffy, "you don't mean that. I know that…"

"You don't know, Buffy," the older Dawn said shaking her head, "after she became human, she made Willow's life hell. She.. she even tortured Willow because she was jealous that she was soooo much better than her at magic." Buffy narrowed her eyes when she heard the word 'torture', and was about to interrupt when the older Dawn said, "whatever happened to make her die? It's karma, and Karma's a bitch. I'm not going to cry for her." The older Dawn stared into Buffy's unbelieving eyes and then shook her head before saying that she was tired. The older Dawn sighed and then hunched her shoulders before saying, "you don't know what I experienced, Buffy."

"I know I haven't," Buffy said- she and the younger Dawn walking towards the older one, "that's why tomorrow we want you to tell us. Keeping all that in is…" Buffy shook her head before pulling the older Dawn in for a hug, a hug joined by the younger Dawn, "it's not good, Dawnie." The older Dawn nodded her head as she remembered watching her Buffy torn apart, "we're here together. And we'll help you together."

"I know," the older Dawn whispered.

TBC.


	11. Chapter 11

**Magic Box, 1230 hours.**

"And then I arrived here," the older Dawn said in the Magic Box as Buffy, Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya, and Giles sat around her at the table in the middle of the shop. It had been nearly an hour since Dawn began telling the group various details about the war back in her own timeline. And by the time she was done, the older Dawn felt exhausted after recounting all the horrors she had seen and experienced.

As were Buffy and the others- the blonde Slayer reaching out and holding the older Dawn's hand before whispering, "and now we're here. We're alive, Dawnie."

"The fighting's over," Tara said looking into the older Dawn's eyes as the latter turned towards her.

Dawn then released a breath and whispered, "it's over but… but those experiences stay with me. I… Look, there's a lot of things that happened which I wish I could change," Dawn placed a hand on her chest and spoke with sincerity, or at least as much sincerity she could manage, "but the problem with trying to fix the future is that there are unintended consequences." Dawn then turned to Willow and said, "I hated Amy. I loathed her for what she did to you."

"She tortured me," Willow said recalling what Dawn told her earlier, "but I was…"

"I was angry that she was alive, I was so angry," Dawn said as the hand she placed on the top of the table rolled into a fist while the hand that Buffy was holding tightened slightly. Buffy looked at the hand, and then back at her sister with a look of sadness at how what the latter experienced, "I wanted to kill her. To stop her before she… she hurt you. But I didn't. I couldn't kill her because she hadn't done anything."

It was Willow who breathed a sigh of relief before saying, "I knew you wouldn't kill her. I mean, even after everything that happened in your timeline…" Willow's voice trailed off as Tara looked away from Dawn and towards the edge of the left side of the table. Willow's voice seemed so far away as the redhead continued to say that Dawn knew what was right from wrong. All the while, Tara felt her heart racing in her chest.

'She's lying,' Tara thought to herself as she glanced back at the smile Dawn, who had her head turned towards Xander, had plastered on her lips. When Dawn said that she hadn't killed Amy, Tara saw a flash in Dawn's aura… a telling sign that her admission was a lie. Dawn killed Amy, that was the thought in Tara's mind. She looked away from Dawn and to Buffy who was rubbing her sister's back before the former turned her head back to the blonde Slayer.

For an instant, Tara and Dawn's eyes met. And Tara, not wanting to indicate to Dawn that she knew the truth about Amy's murder, told Dawn, "we're all here for you, Dawnie." Tara then leaned back on her seat after Dawn grinned at her before looking at Buffy who hugged her tight.

All Tara could do was watch. She knew that the others wouldn't believe that the older Dawn murdered an innocent by breaking into her and Willow's room, at least not without any proof. It wasn't until Dawn, while hugging Buffy, glanced back at her that Tara realized she was staring at the two sisters. Tara glimpsed a moment of shame from Dawn before the latter looked away.

And Tara averted her gaze to Willow. She reached out, held the redhead's hand, and then gently squeezed. Willow then turned to Tara, leaned in, and then gave a kiss on Tara's cheek before whispering, "see, I told you she didn't do anything." Tara smiled at Willow before looking away at Xander holding onto Anya, and then to Giles.

'There's no proof,' Tara reminded herself when she thought about taking Giles aside and confiding in him. She believed that he would be somewhat receptive at least to her theory of what she believed the older Dawn had done, but then again, she reminded herself that there was no proof that Dawn actually did anything. All she had was her own perspective of Dawn's aura flashing when she lied about not killing Amy.

'There is no physical proof.' Tara then resigned to her silence, turned to Willow and nodded her head after the redhead reminded her that they had class in an hour.

"How about we have dinner tonight?" Buffy said, "we'll order some pizza…"

"Some wings," Xander said with his arm around Anya.

"Some wings," Buffy repeated with a smirk while the older Dawn chuckled at Xander.

"Now that we are all set for the most part," Giles said closing his notebook where he had written the more important details of what the older Dawn had been telling them about the future. However, he noticed that the brunette hadn't mentioned anything about the man or woman who killed Tara – the very event that seemed to set off Willow's fall. He still worried about the redhead and reminded himself to contact the Devon Coven for assistance in training her. "We should not speak about event that may or may not happen to anyone other than us. Knowledge of the future, even if it's only one person who knows what could happen, is dangerous."

"Well, G-man, you did write everything down," Xander pointed at the notebook.

"I'll be keeping this hidden away from prying eyes," was Giles' reply before turning to Dawn, "Dawn, you haven't mentioned the people responsible for killing Tara. Since Buffy didn't die in this timeline against Glory, and so was not resurrected, we do not have to worry about the First Evil making any moves for the foreseeable future. However…"

Anya then understood what Giles was saying or at least trying to say, before he interjected, "you could still die, and Willow could go crazy and destroy the world."

"I would have said it with a little more tact, Anya," Giles sighed while taking off his glasses. Anya shrugged her shoulders while Buffy and Dawn frowned at her.

"I'm sorry, but there really isn't any time to be tactful," Anya sighed shaking her head before leaning forward and resting her arms on the table. "Whatever Willow could do if Tara is killed…"

"And that's a big 'if'," Buffy said looking at Tara and then at Anya, "a very big 'If'."

"If Tara dies," Anya whispered looking at Tara, and then at Buffy, "Willow could very well, in her grief, do something that will allow the First into this realm. The possibility is there."

"Which is why I hope we are all in agreement that finding the people who killed Tara in the other timeline should be sought out," Giles said, the others nodding their heads in agreement. They then turned to Dawn who was shaking her head before asking them about what Giles said about changes to the future.

"Are you gonna kill them?" Dawn asked Buffy while the others looked on. Buffy narrowed her eyes before shaking her head and saying 'no', "even if they killed Tara?"

"That was what happened in another timeline," Buffy reminded Dawn, "they haven't done anything yet." Dawn stared at Buffy and knew that her sister wouldn't kill a human unless it was absolutely necessary. She remembered the story about the Zookeeper who wanted the powers of the Hyena, she recalled the fight Buffy had with the coach of the swim team- both enemies were human and Buffy killed them in the heat of battle. 'She wouldn't harm Warren and the others because they hadn't done anything yet. And that may just get Tara killed.'

"They are dangerous," Dawn said looking at the entire group as a plan formed in her head. Dawn just had to make her argument sound convincing. "They will kill Tara. And that will force Willow into grief," Dawn turned her head to look at the redhead, "a dark grief. I…"

"I.. I will…" Willow admitted before turning towards the confused Tara who asked what she meant. Willow then took a deep breath and clarified, "I would kill them if they hurt you, baby."

"Willow," Buffy said shaking her head, "no…."

"You will not," Tara said grasping both of the redhead's hands, "no matter what happens, you have to promise me you will not do anything so foolish."

"I…."

"Promise me, Willow," Tara begged. Willow stared into Tara's eyes for a few seconds before closing them and then nodding her head while Tara continued, "It's something that I don't want." Tara then turned to the others and then back to Willow while saying, "I know what I got into when we became one, Willow. I know that either one of us could die. I've made my peace and… I mean I don't want to die. Who would want to die?" Willow tightened her grip on Tara's hands, "but if I go, then it's my time. And I don't want you going on a revenge quest."

"And we're here for you, Will," Xander said while Tara glanced at the older Dawn who was staring at them with her single eye. Tara couldn't tell what the brunette was thinking from her facial expression, nor what she was feeling from the confusing colour palate of her aura. Tara then turned her attention back to Willow while Giles leaned forward on the table and asked Dawn the question they had all been thinking.

"Who was it that killed Tara, Dawn," Giles asked. Dawn then turned to the Watcher and frowned.

"You're all making a big mistake," Dawn said shaking her head, "there's no redemption for these two… and…"

"Dawn, please," Giles whispered.

"What are you gonna do?" Dawn asked as anger crept up in her voice, just as she wanted if she was to trick the Scoobies. Dawn knew that Tara was the one who needed to be convinced that there were only two people involved in Tara's death. Dawn had almost forgotten about Tara's ability to read aura's and sense feelings. She only recalled those abilities when Tara mentioned she felt how enraged Dawn had been with Amy. So now, Dawn had to really be angry at both Andrew and Jonathon. 'This is going to have to be one convincing lie', she thought before speaking out, "tell them that they're being naughty boys and sending them to their rooms?"

"Dawn," Giles said taking off his glasses, "I realize that…"

"Jonathan burst into the backyard with a gun!" Dawn slammed her fist onto the table. Everyone jumped back at the 'thump' of the fist hitting the table-top, and at the anger that emerged from Dawn as her face started to turn red, "Buffy stopped that idiot and Andrew from robbing a bank. They wanted revenge! That idiot Jonathon rushed in and fired! He shot Buffy!"

"What?" Buffy asked her eyes widened, "Dawn, you never…"

"Xander pushed you away but you were shot!" Dawn growled as tears welled in her eyes, "he continued firing! One of the bullets hit the window in Willow's room and shot through Tara's heart! He did it! I was there with Tara's body! I…." Dawn looked away as she tried to reign in her anger, real anger and rage at remembering when she sat in a corner of Tara and Willow's room staring down at the dead witch. "Willow went dark. She saved you Buffy, but… but Tara dying? That did it for Willow."

"We'll prevent that from happening," Buffy assured Dawn who continued to shake her head.

"Wait, you said Jonathan killed Tara?" Willow asked, "which…."

"Jonathan Levinson," Dawn said as she sat back down while the others, especially Giles, Buffy, Willow, and Xander looked at each other in surprise.

Tara and Anya looked at each other before looking to the others and asked if they knew the name. It was Buffy who said that Jonathan had gone to Sunnydale High with them. Willow then mentioned that Jonathan had nearly committed suicide in the school's tower before Buffy talked him down, "and that time she thought he was going to start shooting the other students."

"Yeah," Buffy said shaking her head, "I can't imagine him killing Tara."

"People change, Buffy," Dawn whispered, anger in her voice, as hate for Jonathan grew, "you beat him and Andrew…"

"Andrew?" Anya asked.

"Andrew Wells," Dawn said, "Tucker Wells' brother."

"Oooooh," the others said.

"The Jonathan I know became… or maybe he always was… a misogynistic psychopath," Dawn said shaking her head, "he's dangerous."

"That's not the Jonathan I know," Buffy said before turning to Willow and Tara. "I need the both of you to run a location spell. I want to know where Jonathan and Andrew are at this exact moment in time. Once we find them, then we'll come up with a plan."

"Which is?" Anya asked, "I mean the plan."

"Keep an eye on them," Buffy said before telling the others about a surveillance mission on Jonathan and Andrew. "I want two teams each with either Willow or Tara." When the two witches gave her a questioning look, Buffy explained that she wanted the Scoobies tailing both Andrew and Jonathon to have witches who can use their magic to listen in to any conversations the two of them had together or alone. "But stay away and just listen in, and watch them." Buffy then turned to Xander, "Xander, you still have your army training?"

"You mean covert intel gathering?" Xander deadpanned.

"Yeah."

"Yep," he nodded his head in response while tapping the side of his head, "it's all in there."

"Alright, break off into two teams," Buffy ordered before turning to Tara and Willow, "Will, I know you said you were gonna pull back on the magic. But I need you and Tara to search for a spell that'll let you listen in, and then I need you two to perform a location spell that'll ."

"Tara and I will check on a spell for listening in," Willow nodded her head, 'no-one is hurting my Tara. No one.'

**The Magic Box, forty-five minutes earlier.**

The two groups were about to leave the Magic Box for their surveillance mission when the older Dawn said, "you're making a mistake, Buffy."

"Dawn," Buffy shook her head as she walked over to her sister standing by the table, "they haven't done anything yet. We know Jonathan, he's a little weird but… well…" Buffy stopped talking as she recalled the time when Jonathan used magic to alter reality so that he was the greatest hero the world has ever known. However, that magic was later dissipated and Jonathan apologized personally to Buffy for what he did to the entire planet. Back in the present day, Buffy took in a deep breath before continuing to speak, "he's made some mistakes, but he's not that bad. Whatever made him go nuts in your timeline? Well, we'll make sure it doesn't happen here. If we have to, we'll intervene and ask the both of them to join us."

"Buff…." Dawn said exasperated while thinking to herself, 'that's what you should do, Buffy. Jonathan is a good person who fell in with the bad crowd. And Andrew needs some guidance. Both of them will help you. I… I'm sorry. I'm sorry because I need you distracted… because I need you to look the other way when I take out the greatest threat to Tara… to Willow's happiness.' While Dawn was telling Buffy and the others that she couldn't be a part of a mission to watch the people who hurt her family, she thought to herself, 'I'm sorry, Buffy. But you just would not do what needs to be done. I'm sorry.'

"I get it, Dawnie," Buffy said nodding her head. Dawn had been exuding anger from her very soul, but it was anger at having seen Tara's body lying dead. It was anger at the world having ended when they failed to destroy the seed. I was her anger and rage at Angel being taken over By Twilight, it was her anger at seeing Buffy die. It was her anger at having lived through a hell that forever scared her soul that exuded off her while hearing Buffy repeat the line that they were just going to watch Andrew and Jonathan.

The older Dawn hoped that her anger and rage would confuse Tara, 'I can't look at her. Just stare at Buffy. Just stare at Buffy.'

"I'll make sure your future never happens," Buffy whispered as she took a few steps forward and then hugged the older Dawn. Dawn then wrapped her arms around Buffy's back and hugged her tight. This was her sister. Yes, a younger version of the sister she knew… but her sister nevertheless. And Dawn just hugged her for a few more seconds before parting. Dawn watched Buffy and a seemingly unaware Tara leave the Magic Box while she, Giles, and Anya were left behind to tend to the store.

Sighing, the older Dawn then told Giles that she was going for a movie.

"Dawn," Giles called before the older Dawn turned, put her hands into her pockets, and then walked towards the counter, "perhaps you should wait for your younger self. It would be better if you went with someone, and…"

"I'm fine, Giles," Dawn said chuckling, "look, I know you think I'm suffering from a bad case of PTSD and a whole lot of other acronyms." Dawn then shrugged, "and maybe I am. I lived through a hell, Giles. I just need some time to get used to this whole new timeline."

"I…." Giles was about to continue speaking. But Dawn then interjected.

"Look, you guys are gonna be here when the younger me is done with school," the older Dawn said, her eyes shifting to the wall clock before shifting back to Giles, "just keep an eye on her… well… on me… the younger me, like you've always done, Giles."

"Of course."

"And…." Dawn placed her hands on the glass counter as she remembered how much Buffy had struggled financially back in her own timeline, especially after she came back from the dead, "Giles, Buffy is the longest serving Slayer."

"She is." Gilles agreed.

"She will be a Slayer for a very long time. She will save the world many times over," Dawn said, "she fought like crazy before sacrificing her life for me and others to escape. Giles, in my timeline Buffy died after she jumped into the portal that Doc opened. When she was brought back months later, we…" Dawn closed her eyes as she remembered how stressed Buffy had been before she stared at Giles while Anya looked on, "we were nearly bankrupt."

"But the money from Joyce's life insurance… it should have…" Anya said before being interrupted by Dawn while Giles look on in stunned silence.

"The money was used to pay the medical bills," the Older Dawn said as she looked at Anya, and then at Giles, "you helped when you could but… it wasn't enough. Buffy had to work at a dead-end job and… and it was a struggle." The older Dawn stared at Giles before continuing, "Giles, can you talk to the Council about giving Buffy a stipend."

Giles narrowed his eyes before looking away, his expression indicating that he was deep in thought.

"Slayers are supposed to live for at most a year," the older Dawn said, "and Buffy's been doing it for far longer than that, and she's saved the world many times over. She deserves something from the Council, Giles. Especially now."

"I should have thought about this earlier," Giles whispered looking back at Dawn, "let me call the Council. You do realize that this has never been done before? The Council paying a Slayer."

"I know," Dawn said, "but Buffy's unique. And times have changed, Giles. She has to look after my younger self, she has the house, she has… has so many things. She deserves something."

"She does," Giles agreed taking off his glasses, "I'll talk to Quintin."

"Okay," Dawn said as she stepped back, 'now they're gonna be distracted with this', "I'm gonna go out for a movie. I'll be back later tonight? We'll meet up here?"

"Yes, of course," Giles nodded his head before he turned around and shuttled back to his office with Anya rushing behind him. The older Dawn smiled before she turned and headed for the front door while thinking to herself, 'it's Warren's turn. And then I check in on Spike. Hopefully, he's left the city.'

**The Mears Household, forty-five minutes later.**

The older Dawn walked up to the cream coloured house. She stood on the sidewalk, just steps away from the walkway that led past the front lawn to the porch, and then the front door of the man who caused so many problems for her and her family. It was just after she left the Magic Box that Dawn took a cab back to the Summers family home where she rushed to Buffy's battle chest. Opening the cover, Dawn reached and grabbed a dagger which she then placed in-between her jeans and the small of her back. She then covered the hilt and handle of the blade with her shirt.

'Now for the second step,' Dawn thought as she walked into the middle of the living room and mumbled a spell. The same spell that cloaked her while sending a surge of energy out into the world to mimic her lifesigns in case Tara was checking in on her. After having released that energy, Dawn then performed a location spell for not just Warren, but Buffy and the others as well; the older Dawn wanted to be sure that her family was nowhere near Warren when she made him pay.

'Ummm…' Dawn thought tilting her head as she stared at a dot that represented Warren on a map of Sunnydale which was etched into the air over the living room carpet, 'thought you would have gone away from here, Warren. Especially after you built the Buffybot.' Dawn then smiled before dissipating the spell- Warren was back at his home while Buffy and the others were on the other side of the city. The older Dawn walked out of the house, then turned left on the sidewalk, and then she went on over to the main street where she caught another cab that took her to the neighbourhood where Warren lived.

And now, after walking through the neighbourhood with the face of Lilian, one of the dead Slayers from her timeline, Dawn found herself knocking on the front door. She felt the warm sheath of the dagger against her lower back as she put her arm down upon hearing a male voice on the other side, followed by footsteps rushing to the door.

"What?" Warren yelled upon opening the door. But Dawn could see he was about to say something else before stopping himself once laying eyes on her. Warren then slicked back his hair with his left hand and straightened his shirt with his right and asked in a gentler voice, "may I help you?"

"I'm sorry," the older, disguised, Dawn said with a southern drawl while she, as Lilian wearing a yellow sundress with thin straps on her shoulders, smiled at the man, "I thought I was knocking on the right door. You're not Liam."

"No, I'm not," Warren said leaning against the door frame while he eyed 'Lilian's' full lips. Dawn's skin crawled as she suppressed a shudder of disgust when Warren's eyes shifted down from her lips, to the thin straps that were around her shoulders, to her cleavage, and then down to her legs and back up again. "And I'm sorry I'm not. But you know, you could come in and have a drink. It's a hot day, and…"

"You're so sweet," 'Lilian' chuckled standing at the doorway while Warren continued eyeing her and licking his lips, "If you could give me directions to Liam's home, I would be in your debt."

"Liam's your boyfriend, or…"

"No," chuckled 'Lilian' shaking her head, "just an important… how would I say… an important man in my life. He looks after me real fine."

"Looks after you, does he?" Warren said, his eyes gleaming while Dawn felt as if she wanted to vomit. "Where does this Liam of yours live?" 'Lilian' then gave the man the same address before saying that Liam lived there- right in Warren's home. She explained that they had met on a dating site and hit it off. She then excitedly said that she was in love with the man. And it was then that Warren chuckled before saying that she was at the right address, but there was no Liam living there. "But I wish I was on that site though," Warren smirked at 'Lilian'.

"But he gave me this address and everything," the southern belle, who was now confused, said looking into Warren's eyes, "I came to Sunnydale to see him and… and he said he would take care of me."

"Oh, you poor girl," Warren continued to chuckle as he looked at the sadness on her face when she realized the situation she was in before saying that 'Lilian' was most likely pranked into coming to Sunnydale, 'what a naïve girl' Warren thought while asking if she had some bags with her.

"I wanted to thank him for letting me visit him," 'Lilian' said as her face turned scarlet while she looked away, "so I… I brought only this set of clothes on my back." 'Lilian' then turned her head back to the confused look on Warren's face. She stared at Warren who, after a few seconds, opened his eyes wide as he realized why it was that the girl in front of him brought only the clothes on her back, "he said he loved me. And that he was going to show me his love, and…"

"Okay," Warren interrupted while thinking, 'she's really a naïve girl'. "I'm sorry you were tricked," he said as he tried to turn this situation around to his benefit- 'after all', he thought to himself, 'how many times do I have a hottie like this one stand on my porch.' Warren then stepped back into his house and to the side, "you can come in and stay here until you have to leave. I swear that I'm a gentleman."

'Sure you are,' Dawn sarcastically thought to herself while 'Lilian' nodded her head before saying that she didn't want to bother him, "I have a flight back to New Orleans in three days, and in the meantime, I can…"

"Three days?" Warren asked.

"Yes," 'Lilian' nodded her head before continuing, "I'll get a hotel room, and then call my daddy, and ask him to send me some money to…"

"Or you could stay here for three days," Warren said motioning into his home.

'Lilian' chuckled before saying in her sweet southern voice, "you are simply too kind. But that would be an imposition on you, and…"

"No imposition at all," Warren said as he reached out with one hand. 'Lilian' grabbed the hand with a wide smile before being gently pulled into the house, "you can use my phone." Warren then closed the front door and stared at 'Lilian' who was looking around the house. The woman then looked back at him and asked for the phone so that she could call her father. "Oh right," Warren exclaimed before motioning to follow him, "but I do get to take you out to dinner."

"Isn't it dangerous to let in stranger into your home?" 'Lilian' sweetly said following Warren.

"Not when they look as beautiful as you," Warren said looking over his shoulder as they approached the phone. "Don't worry, I have a room here that you can stay for the three days."

"Oh?" 'Lilian' said in an embarrassed tone while Warren smirked at her while eyeing her like a piece of meat.

"My parents will be out of town for the week," said Warren turning his head back to the phone which was a few steps away, 'and you can stay in my room. With me. Now, I'll let her talk on the phone while I go back down and get something that'll have her become putty in my hands. I think mom has some extra bottle of her sleeping pills in the restroom.' Nearing the phone, with Warren's back facing her, the young man never saw 'Lilian' dissipate leaving only Dawn in her shirt and jeans following him. Warren never saw her pull out the dagger from behind the small of her back. And he never saw the dagger being swiftly and cleanly stabbed into his back.

"Ack!" Warren choked turning around after he was pushed away by Dawn after she pulled the knife out of his back. As he turned he gasped again when he saw the one-eyed woman rush forward. He tried to push her away with her hands, but missed, and then felt something slice his throat. He stumbled back while reaching behind him as warm liquid flowed down his back before stumbling onto the floor with the phone and the table it stood upon. He then wrapped a hand around the cut on his neck to stop the bleeding, but he could still feel the blood flowing free through his fingers. Warren saw that the southern belle in the orange sundress was gone. All he saw right now was a one-eyed woman with brown hair holding a bloody dagger that had fresh blood dripping onto the carpet. And the question in his mind was, 'why?'

And as if she read his mind, Warren got his answer just as his eyes were getting heavy from the loss of blood, "this is for the pain you could have caused, you bitch."

"B… bitch," Warren repeated as he lay in a pool of his own blood on the carpet. The older Dawn saw the young man close his eyes before she looked around the home and then smiled. Dawn reactivated the glamour once again when he stopped breathing.

She then raised her left hand at the body and whispered, "be glad I gave you this mercy. You don't deserve it." Dawn then stared at the body while closing her eye and mumbling a spell. She then opened her one eye and said, "ignis." Dawn then turned around as the body started to smoke. She opened the door as thicker smoke started to burst out of Warren's open mouth, nostrils, ears, and every other opening. She mentally shut the door behind her while putting the dagger back into its sheath at the small of her back.

And she walked away, a weight off her shoulders, as Warren's body began to be engulfed in flames.

Walking to the sidewalk, Dawn smelled burning flesh and a smile appeared on her face as she turned left. She, as Lilian, looked over her shoulder while flames could be seen through one of the windows. She knew that the fire spell wouldn't stop until its target was consumed. And that meant Warren's body, and the entire house. This time, Dawn was leaving nothing to chance as the flames started to spread in the house. Willow, her timeline's Willow, had told her that the pain from the spell, with the fire literally burning the body from inside out, was excruciating and the victim would scream loudly while still flailing around.

And Dawn saw that spell in action a few days after Buffy died when a team searching for fid was confronted by demons. Willow used that very spell to burn them while using another spell that kept the burning demons away from her and her group so that they did not get burned. And that was why Dawn needed to stab Warren- to get him to stay still. The Older Dawn really wanted to hear Warren scream, but she thought it better to just make the death as quick as possible… especially since his screams would have attracted suspicions from the neighbours.

'Now, this would be another mystery that the Sunnydale Police Department could never solve,' the older Dawn thought in relief, 'And now Tara is safe. Next stop, Spike.'

TBC.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sunnydale.**

'Cordelia, Angel, Darla'.

Those were the names going through Dawn's mind as she exited the cab after it stopped outside the cemetery where Spike's crypt was located.

'Angel and Darla will have Conner, and Conner will impregnate Cordelia after she comes back from the higher planes with Jasmine hitching a ride,' Dawn thought while she told the driver to wait for a few minutes. And when he accepted, Dawn turned and rushed into the cemetery and towards Spike's crypt. All the while thinking, 'Angel will become Twilight, and…' Dawn then stopped at the entrance and thought, 'time has already changed. Will he still become Twilight? Will the First have enough power to order around the Bringers freely, will….' Dawn shook her head and then continued walking with her hands in her pockets and her head held high, 'no… I can't think like that. They need to go. They have key roles to play in the end of the world which, I have to admit, may or may not happen. But I can't risk it, they have key roles to play in the end of days. And… and I know I'm doing the right thing.'

Dawn continued walking while pushing back the voice in her mind saying that Cordelia and Angel haven't done anything yet, and that Darla is probably a human in Los Angeles who hasn't been impregnated yet. Dawn still shook her head and thought, 'they still need to removed off the board. They are still dangerous… they will hurt us and the world. They need to go… yea… they need to go.'

Upon reaching the crypt, Dawn pushed the door open and walked into the room before a frown appeared on her face. 'His couch is still here, and so is the TV' she thought to herself looking around as she walked further into the crypt where she saw a table next to the couch that had an ash tray on it. She stared at the cigarette butt before looking at the TV which was switched off. 'Damn it, Spike', Dawn thought to herself as she walked towards the cover that led to the stairs which, in turn, led to the lower level. She walked down the steps and then into the hallway with walls of stones before making a left turn a few feet later.

Dawn frowned as she entered Spike's bedroom; she saw his unmade bed which seemed as if it was slept on, she turned her head and saw his clothes in a wooden closet while other clothes were on the bed. He saw the bedside tables full of beer bottles and then turned to her left where she saw a cooler. Shaking her head, Dawn then turned around and started to walk angrily through the hallway that led to the stairs, 'Spike! I told you to leave. I told you that you were a danger to Buffy!'. Dawn could believe that Spike didn't listen to her- all she wanted to do was make sure her sister never had to go through something like that ever again.

'I told him that if he really loved her, then he had to leave Sunnydale,' Dawn thought striding up the stairs and then past the couch and out the door. She slammed the door to the crypt shut behind her before walking onto the grass and towards the cab waiting for her at the entrance to the cemetery. Dawn knew if she hadn't used the spell on Warren, she would be using it on the crypt- right now she was exhausted from using a powerful spell since she wasn't a natural witch. Right now, all Dawn wanted to do was go back home and sleep.

'But I told Giles that I'll be back,' Dawn thought to herself upon seeing the cab in the distance, 'so, might as well go back to the Magic Box. And Spike? I have to give him a chance. I'm tell him to leave again. For the help he gave us… he deserves a chance to leave.' However, as Dawn walked past the entrance, she didn't want to imagine what would have to be done in the even he didn't leave. Getting into the cab, Dawn asked the driver to take her home.

Once she reached the house, Dawn washed the blood away the blood on Buffy's dagger with bleach before placing it back into the weapons chest in the living room. She then left the home and walked back out towards the waiting cab when she suddenly stopped.

Dawn looked back at the garage and then back at the cab as an idea came to her head. She looked back up at the brightly lit day, and then back at the cab before rushing towards it as she took out some cash that Buffy had given her earlier. Dawn paid the driver, telling him that she changed her mind, after which she turned back towards the house and strode up the walkway and into the house once again. Dawn walked back into the living room and stood in the middle as she prepared another location spell.

She searched for Buffy and the others, and were glad to know that they were busy, 'probably listening in to Andrew and Jonathon's theories about Superman and the Flash,' Dawn thought. She then switched her attention to Spike who was at the Bronze, before she took in a deep breath and searched for Angel, Darla, and Cordelia.

"Found you," Dawn whispered at the dots that appeared on the map of Los Angeles, "I'm not waiting. Today, it all ends." The map dissipated before Dawn rushed to the weapons chest and took out the dagger from earlier. She then, while placing the sheathed dagger next to the small of her back, rushed to the phone and called the Magic Box.

"Giles," the older Dawn said just as the younger Dawn walked into the Magic Box after having finished with the school day, "I know I said I'll be back at the Magic Box after the movie but I need to go to Los Angeles."

"Los Angeles?" Giles asked confused as the younger Dawn, putting her bag on the table, turned to him in surprise, "why?"

"Well, my Willow taught me to do location spells and… and I know I gave this timelines Willow grief about magic and such… anyway, I used a location spell to find a guy I knew back in my own time," Dawn lied, but still had a nervous tinge to her voice since she was lying to Giles, "and I thought I'd go see him. He should be nineteen now and.. I.. mean…"

"So you and this boy were…."

"A thing," Dawn smiled as she grabbed the car keys, "and… I mean I just want to see him again. I'm not gonna tell him about the future or anything. Don't worry about that."

"Dawn, you should wait for Buffy and the others. Maybe they would like to go with you."

"I know I would," the younger Dawn said with a grin as she stared at Giles before walking to the counter, "this guy is someone we'll know?!" the young woman yelled. The older Dawn chuckled on the phone after hearing herself speak on the other line before saying, "tell my younger self that the sex between us was amazing."

"Yes," the suddenly nervous Giles whose face went all red in embarrassment said while looking at the younger Dawn, "the both of you…. Know each other."

"Sweet," the younger Dawn said before turning around and heading back to the table. The older Dawn was laughing over the other end of the line before saying that she would be back later that night.

"Keep some slices of Pizza for me," the Older Dawn said before putting the phone back down. She then walked out to the garage, started the Jeep, and then drove out the drive. With the garage doors closing behind her, Dawn then made her way towards the highway and the two-hour drive to Los Angeles. The older Dawn knew this wasn't going to be easy- Angel was someone the Scoobies trusted and saw as an ally, but he was Twilight's vessel. 'And there is every chance he could be again. A rumour circulated that the reason Twilight was able to get to Angel was because he had a soul… and… and I know Buffy loves him. But this has to be done.'

The older Dawn pulled the Jeep to the side of the road just before reaching the on-ramp for the highway. She knew what she did to Amy and Warren were just- it was something they deserved. But now, just before making the first push towards Los Angeles, Dawn felt her heart racing. She went back to thinking the same thoughts as back in the cemetery earlier, Dawn knew that her next targets were the allies of the Scoobies, 'well, except for Darla anyway.' But Dawn knew that Darla already paid for the suffering she caused by being turned to ash years ago. 'But she's back… she's supposed to be innocent…. Supposed to have already paid for her mistakes. She is human and….' The older Dawn shook her head as she leaned back in her seat while cars and trucks whooshed past her, "no she becomes a vampire again and… and I need to get her before she does. I need to take her out before Wolfram and Hart gets the crazy bitch, Drusilla, to make her a vampire again.'

But Dawn still couldn't feel as if she was making a mistake. 'Warren and Amy caused so much pain and…" The older Dawn closed her eye again and took in a deep breath. There was a part of her that knew what she did was to Amy and Warren was wrong, 'that's why you never told Buffy, Giles, and the others what you did or were planning to do.' Another part of Dawn then shot back, 'Buffy and the others would have let Warren and Amy go. They would have tried to set them on the right path' Dawn snorted to herself shaking her head, 'there is no right path for them. Amy was already corrupted by Rack. She was going to hurt Willow. Hurt all of us. And Warren? Warren was a murderer! He killed his girlfriend, who knows how many others he abused, and he killed Tara! He deserved what he got!'

Dawn opened her eye and stared out the windshield.

"But do Cordelia and Angel deserve it? Now? In this new timeline? Do they deserve it now?" The older Dawn asked herself. Her chest stung as she leaned forward, and grabbed the steering wheel with one hand, 'Angel could become Twilight, Cordelia will become a higher being and then come back to give birth to that monster, Jasmine. And Darla? Well Darla's supposed to give birth to Connor who'll be kidnapped by Holtz and then returned from hell. Connor will screw Cordelia, and that will give birth to… to Jasmine' Dawn's chest still stung when she realized that there was no choice. She had to do something, 'but there is a choice', Dawn thought to herself. But the more she thought about telling Angel and the others what was to come, 'even telling them won't do anything. What's the saying? The more you try to prevent something with foreknowledge, the more likely it is what you are trying to prevent will take place.'

"No choice," Dawn whispered putting the Jeep back into 'Drive' and then heading up the on-ramp towards Los Angeles, 'sorry, Buffy. But this is something I have to do.'

**The Magic Box, two hours later.**

"Nothing," Buffy huffed after she walked back into the Magic Box with the rest of the Scoobies behind her. They had been following Andrew and Jonathan in separate groups before rendezvousing at the Espresso Pump- and they found nothing that would show them that the two were a threat. As Buffy walked over to the counter where Giles stood at the cash register and the others headed for the table, the younger Dawn said that her older self had gone to Los Angeles to meet up with a friend. Buffy raised an eyebrow, a quizzical expression on her face, before asking, "what friend?"

"Someone she knew in her future," Giles answered before Buffy turned to stare at him, " and then at the younger Dawn.

"A friend?" Buffy asked.

"Looks like I'll be in an exciting relationship in the future and…"

"I don't wanna hear it," Buffy exclaimed putting her hands over her ears while Willow and Tara chuckled at the redness covering the Slayer's face, "and you are not dating anyone until you're in college, and…."

"AAh," Dawn waved her hands before turning around with a grin on her face and taking a seat next to Anya who said that the 'nerds' were, as she put it, "talking nerd things".

"Nerd things?" Giles asked.

"Oh you know- Wonder Woman, Star Trek, Star Wars, did Han shoot first?" Xander shrugged, "that kind of Nerd Things."

"Oh," nodded Giles before turning back towards Buffy who was biting her lower lip deep in thought, "Buffy?"

"They didn't seem like they were going to be any danger at all," Buffy said glancing at Tara who was talking to the younger Dawn. Buffy recalled that the older Dawn said the two young men were supposed to kill Tara. She shifted her eyes back towards Giles, "but I guess we need to follow them for a little longer. We remember what Jonathan did with that whole reality changing wish thing, so we need to make sure he and Andrew aren't going into anything darker."

"I'll check the books for a way to check in on them without them knowing," Willow answered after turning away from Tara. The brunette witch then sighed and leaned back on her seat while wondering what would turn two seemingly benign you men into killers. It would be minutes later that the older Dawn would reach Los Angeles while Buffy and the others separated to do their own duties.

**Los Angeles.**

Dawn pulled the jeep into a parking structure after she got off the highway. It was still afternoon with the full force of the sun beating down into the city- the weather was so hot and whatever breeze being carried though the air was warm and stifling. Even the shade of the parking structure wasn't enough to cool off the heat, which was why Dawn kept the vehicle running while she leaned back on the driver seat after parking the car.

'I have to do this,' Dawn thought to herself as she thought about Willow, her Willow, being stabbed from behind before entering the breach. Dawn took in a deep breath, 'or else your death would be for nothing'. Dawn opened her eyes, the sight of the blood on Willow's chest still so fresh in her mind, and then took in a deep breath once again. 'I have to do this. For the safety of this world, to protect Buffy and the others… I need to do this. Just as we planned.'

Dawn was very aware that using the 'Ignis' spell had taken much out of her. She wasn't a natural witch, at least not like Willow or Tara, or any of the other witches in their former base of operations back in the future. Like most of the other, she could cast spells- but in doing so it would take most of her energy. She resolved to use a second 'ignis' spell on Angel- it would tire her out even more, but it won't get her so exhausted that she needed to sleep somewhere in LA. The last thing she wanted was to stay in the city for longer than she intended, 'and Tara suspects I had something to do with Amy already.' Dawn wondered what this timeline's Buffy's would do when the latter discovered that she was the one who killed Warren, Amy, and was going to kill Angel, Cordelia, and Darla.

'She'll be angry,' the older Dawn thought to herself while she performed the 'distraction' spell- she made sure that any one searching would see that she was in another part of the city. Once that spell was in place, Dawn then performed a location spell for Cordelia, Angel and Darla, "let's see who's closer." While Dawn performed the spell, she thought of Buffy's expression if she ever found out the truth, and the imaginary look of betrayal on the blonde Slayer's face broke older Dawn's heart.

'Angel was my friend too,' Dawn thought to herself, 'I hate Darla just because she's a soulless vamp, and Cordelia? Well, I didn't have any problem with her and slowly we became close when she was in Sunnydale. But… but as much as I hope that my timeline won't repeat itself here, I cannot take that risk.'

Dawn stared at the map of LA hanging in the air in front of her, along with three dots that corresponded to her targets. Her eyes shifted towards each target as she thought about who to target first. Once her eyes settled on a target, Dawn whispered, "I guess Darla's first,". She then closed her eyes and breathed in deep. Opening her eyes again, Dawn leaned forward and placed one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the key in the ignition. She glanced at the steering wheel, particularly the ring figure while she engaged the reverse gear. Dawn then had a melancholy look on her face before she looked away, shook her head, and then drove out of the structure. 'For everyone who died,' Dawn thought to herself, 'this is for you, Willow. …. What I do now is for us.'

A minute later, Dawn was on her way towards her first target.

**The future.**

Willow screamed out in pain while she hung in the air. Her head was pulled back, her arms stretched out by her sides, her hair turning black and then red multiple times while the loud laughter from Twilight could be heard for miles around. All over the world, Twilight's demons were neutralizing the rest of the human resistance- information that Twilight tore out of Willow's head just after he pulled her body back together. Each resistance cell had their magical wards crushed before the demons broke through and killed everyone.

It wouldn't be long before Willow was the only human on Earth; a planet where its magic was being corrupted. Willow could barely collect enough power to fight back thanks to the aforementioned magical corrupting and the pain caused by Twilight's corruption of her very soul. Willow could feel jagged nails grasping and digging into her mind and heart while a cold empty feeling was digging its way into her soul. Willow tried fighting- she tried everything she could for the past several hours since she was resurrected to push back Twilight.

But she was failing. She was known as the Supreme Witch of the Earth Realm and she was failing. Her mind grasped for the memories that were being corrupted. She grasped for the first kiss with Tara but it got covered in shadow. She grasped for the memory of Buffy, Xander, and even Anya… but those were covered in shadow and torn apart. And Willow screamed out a bloodcurdling roar of pain when she lost her grasp on the memory of her first kiss with Dawn- her first birthday after the apocalypse with the brunette.

"The world's ended Will," Dawn had said on the last night they shared in their tent surrounded by a soundproof shield. Willow grasped tight onto that memory for a few seconds longer. She was looking up into Dawn's eyes after the latter, the both of them panting, crawled up the redhead's sweat covered body. After their latest exertions, they needed to recharge before trying to at least get a few hours of sleep. Willow remembered her body tingling as Dawn lay down- the brunette's arm around her waist and her head settling down against the nape of her neck. Willow closed her eyes and revelled in the sensation of Dawn gently breathing against her skin.

"I know," Willow whispered while she rolled to her side so that they were now face to face, one arm under Dawn's side. That arm was placed on the brunette's back while her other hand was on Dawn's waist. Willow tried to hold onto the memory of looking into Dawn's eyes as she thought of everything she was going to lose, "but you're going back to change things. You…"

"Come with me," Dawn whispered brushing her fingers against Willow's side until she reached her hips, "you can come, and…"

"You know I can't," Willow said gently, "I…"

Willow felt that memory slipping away… she felt darkness and pure evil taking over her very self.

"I…." Willow tried to remember what happened next. But she could feel Twilight taking over- the latter placed his hand, glowing black, on Willow's chest. As darkness from Twilight slipped into the ever-weakening Willow, the redhead pulled that memory back into the forefront of her mind, "I… I know it's the end of the world. And I… I should have done this earlier."

"Done what?" Dawn whispered narrowing her eyes.

"The end of the world."

"That's what I said," Dawn replied confused.

"I loved three people, Dawnie," Willow whispered. And now she could feel this memory being covered in darkness. She felt chains wrapping around her arms and legs, her chest and neck; she felt a veil covering her face while a voice whispered in her ears.

"You're mine now," Twilight whispered, "you are mine. You are me." Willow screamed through a shroud that covered her very soul as she tried to grab a hold on her memory. Her last happy memry as thoughts or destruction and murder started to take over.

"I loved Oz, Tara, kinda had something for Kennedy, and then you," Willow remembered whispering to Dawn. Her memory was staring to fade now, "and this is the last day I would spend with my love. The last day I would spend with you before we all die."

"Willow?" Dawn asked. Willow could see Dawn's face vanishing as her memory was being pulled away.

"Marry me before the end," Willow asked as Dawn started to vanish from her minds eye. And Willow screamed out for her love, "DAWN!"

And just before Willow felt herself being locked away with chains dragging her into a deep black ocean- an ocean which upon entering she felt her body starting to freeze over as it seeped through her pores and into her blood. She felt as if she wanted to scream, but she couldn't control her body. She was completely helpless just as one word echoed through the darkness before there was complete silence.

"Yes."

And then she felt evil grab her very soul before she was pulled further into the dark and cold ocean. Willow was gone, her very being covered in shadow as she sank- until the Willow that the older Dawn knew was no more. The woman who stared back at Twilight now had no emotion showing on her face. Her eyes were still green, her hair was now red, and she stood on the blood soaked ground with her chin jutting out at Twilight who pulled away his hand from her chest.

"You have a small part of me in you," Twilight sneered as Willow tilted her head and a small smile came on her face, "prepare the universe for my coming."

Willow nodded her head.

"Do not harm Buffy or Angel, or any of the other Scoobies. Especially the two versions of Dawn, and your younger self," Twilight said while staring at Willow as he mentally formed clothes around her body. As a black leather jacket started to form around her shoulders with a blue shirt underneath the jacket and blue jeans forming around her hips and legs, Twilight continued, "I want them to watch the end."

Willow nodded her head once again while the jacket finished forming. Standing in clean jeans, a blue shirt, and a black leather jacket, Willow was ready. At least that was what Twilight said before stepping forward and leaning in to whisper into her ear. Willow stared straight ahead while Twilight finished his final orders before stepping back.

"I understand," Willow responded, her eyes shifting towards Twilight, "they will die. All of them will die."

"Use the power I granted you," Twilight nodded his head, "kill them all. And then find the Scythe and call upon the power of the First Slayer. And then you know what to do."

"Yes," Willow smirked at Twilight, "I will lead you to this new universe."

"Good girl," Twilight said before stepping back and to one side while pointing at the empty space where he could feel the still healing rip in the fabric of the universe, "now go. Be my herald, and open the doorway from the other side."

For just a moment, as Willow smiled at Twilight, her eyes turned black. And she nodded her head.

TBC.


	13. Chapter 13

  **Angel Investigations, now.**

"Angel!" Cordelia's pained voice screamed out as she pressed a hand against the side of her head while her other hand grasped the top edge of the front desk at the Hyperion Hotel, the latest headquarters for Angel Investigations. She was heading for Angel's office to meet with Gunn, Wesley, and Fred… their newest addition… when a sudden vision provided by the Powers that Be hit her. She felt the back of her skull burning as she stumbled forward and screamed out in pain. The sensation of pain reached the left side of her head as a worried Angel rushed out of the back office and towards the brunette who had tears coming out of her eyes.

Behind Angel, Gunn and the others rushed out to find him helping a pained Cordelia towards the sofa in the hotel lobby. Once she was sat down, Angel stepped back to let her catch her breath while the others stood next to him. Fred crouched down next to Cordelia and held her hand before looking back towards Angel. She could see the worry etched on his face before she turned back towards Cordelia once again.

Ever since returning to Earth from Pylea, Fred had been just starting to get used to her old life. She admired and had a crush on her saviour in Pylea, Angel, and then met with Gunn and Wesley… both of whom were attracted to her, and then she met Cordelia. At that time, Cordelia was made queen in Pylea… but they all escaped back to Earth after a revolt by humans on that world. It would be later, after their return, that Fred was told about Cordelia's visions and the pain they brought her.

And this looked to be much worse as Fred watched Cordelia's face twist in pain while trying to stifle a scream.

"Cordy?" Angel whispered kneeling down after taking a step forward and placing a hand on the side of her tear stained left cheek, "I'm sorry to ask you this when… when you're in so much pain. But…" Angel took a deep breath before asking, "what do you see?"

"Dar… Darla," Cordelia said to the surprise of everyone there, except for Fred who asked about the aforementioned Darla.

"Someone I don't want to see… someone I thought left LA," Angel answered recalling the threat he made to the vampire after their night of sex before he found himself having regained his confidence to help others help themselves, "I told her to never come back to the city. I heard she left with…"

"I… I see blood," Cordelia whispered as she opened her eyes and stared into Angles, "Darla burning and turning to ash… and… Angel…" Cordelia's eyes were wide open in shock, something that worried the Vampire, "she… she's pregnant."

"What?" Angel gasped in disbelief while Gunn looked on in worry. He then looked to Wesley who seemed to be deep in thought, his face too etched with worry. Gunn looked away and towards Fred who was confused. She too knew that Vampires couldn't have children. There was no way for that to happen. Angel turned his head towards the people around him, and saw the disbelief on their faces before turning back to Cordelia, "Cordy, that is not possible. Vampires cannot have children."

"You did say that Darla seduced you, Angel," Gunn said, but before anyone could continue, what Cordy said next chilled them to the bone.

"A… a dagger… a dagger… I.. I… Dawn? Dawn is holding a dagger," Cordelia stated with her eyes narrowed as if she was looking at something far-away, "one.. one eye. She has one eye, she looks like Dawn, and…"

"Who's Dawn?" Fred asked as Angel snapped his head towards a surprised Wesley.

"Dawn's only fourteen," Wesley said, his mind unable to connect what Cordelia was telling them with the girl he knew when he was Buffy's watcher.

"And there's no way that Buffy would send her here, at least not without telling me," Angel said looking back at Cordelia, and then back to the confused looks on Fred and Gunn. He then explained, "Dawn is Buffy's sister." He then saw the look of confusion on Fred's face when she asked about Buffy. It was Gunn who responded that Buffy was Angel's ex-girlfriend. And Angel swore he saw a glint of happiness in Fred's eyes when Gunn mentioned that Angel and Buffy were no longer together. Thinking nothing of it, Angel turned back towards Cordelia who was now panting as she grasped his shoulders.

The pain seemed to be lifting from her head as she nodded before whispering, "that hurt… more than usual I mean… like the Powers were angry or something."

"Cordy," Angel said as he held her right hand, "are you sure about what you saw?"

"I saw Darla, Angel," Cordelia said, "she was burning, and… and I saw Dawn…" Cordelia then took a deep breath, "she had one eye, the other one had a patch with a scar and… and she was older. I mean yeah, she should be older now but… but the one I saw is much older than she should be. Like she's in her late-twenties or early thirties. And she was holding a dagger."

"Do you know where they are?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, about fifteen minutes from here, I have the address," Cordelia said. Angel looked to Wesley, who nodded his head before running towards the front desk. Angel turned back to Cordelia who was staring back at him, "I saw… I saw such anger. After Dawn killed…"

"Cordy," Gunn said, "this… whoever this was can't be the Slayer's sister. It has to be someone else. I mean this girl has to be like fourteen? So how can a fourteen-year-old…"

"It's Dawn," Cordelia said shaking her head while Wesley rushed back with a pen and paper, handing them over to Angel, "she's older, but it's Dawn. I know it is… and.. and after she's done with Darla…"

"What else did you see?" Angel asked.

"You and me," Cordelia said staring at Angel, "she's coming after us. She kills us and.. and then…"

"Then?" Angel asked, with a serious look on his face, "Cordelia?"

"Darkness," Cordelia said softly as she recalled a darkness that covered the world, "I saw darkness taking over the world."

"Give me the address," Angel said handing Cordelia the pen and paper. He then turned to Gunn, telling him that the both of them were going to the address while Wesley was going to call Buffy and get to the bottom to what was going on with Dawn.

**The Magic Box.**

The younger Dawn was studying while Anya was stocking the shelves and checking prices of the various Knick-knacks on the shelves. She had some math homework that needed to be completed, and as she sighed while going down to the next problem, her mind went back to her older self and what she was doing in Los Angeles.

'Maybe the guy I meet in the future is hot as hell now?' Dawn thought to herself while staring at the math problem, her eyes scanned the numbers and letters on the same algebraic equation for the past six minutes, 'man… I wanna see him.' Dawn then sighed, put her pen down, and leaned back on the chair and placed her hands behind her head, her fingers interlocked with each other as she looked up at Giles who was writing something down in the very diary that Dawn and Spike once sneaked in to search.

The very same diary where Giles had written down about Dawn being the Key.

"What'cha doin?" Dawn gleefully asked as she leaned forward, placing her arms on the table. She glanced at Anya looking back at her, and then at Giles, before going back to what she was doing earlier- checking the prices against a master list in her hand, "what'cha writing?" Dawn asked as she got up and hopped over to the counter as Giles frowned at the young girl and closed the book.

"I'm just putting down my thoughts about your older self," Giles said, putting the diary back into the not-so-secret compartment under the counter.

"And?" Dawn asked with an eyebrow arched upwards, and a grin on her face. She thought that he Watcher was going to say that her older self was, in Dawn's own words, very 'cool'. But what Giles said was something different.

"She's been through a lot," Giles said as he placed his hands on the glass countertop, "she has seen and done things that I cannot imagine." He could see that Dawn was about to say something, but before she did, Giles explained, "years of war. Dawn… it changes people," Giles focused on the girl in front of him, trying not to see her as the woman who arrived from the future, "Buffy and I never wanted any of this for you. None of us did."

"But she's already been through hell," Anya said from where she was standing before she looked back and walked towards the table in the middle of the shop, "and she did what she had to do."

"I was getting to that, Anya," Giles said.

"I…."

Before Giles could continue, the phone to his left started to ring. Giles signalled to Dawn that they would finish their conversation at another time before he reached out for the wireless phone and connected the call.

"Magic Box, we meet all your magical needs," Giles said as Dawn rolled her eyes at the slogan.

"Mr. Giles, this is Wesley Wyndham-Price."

"Ah, Wesley," Giles said straightening up while Dawn raised her eyebrows in surprise at hearing the name of Buffy's former Watcher- more like the temporary Watcher, "how is Los Angeles?"

"That's why I'm calling," Wesley said as he watched the doors to the hotel close after Gunn and Angel, his jacket over his head, rushed out to the car, "Mr. Giles, as you are aware, Cordelia receives visions from the Powers That Be."

"Of course," Giles said, his voice showing concern. He heard from Angel that Cordelia receives visions, but those vision come with debilitating pain for the former Scooby. He had been trying to find out ways for her human psychology to take on the visions with little to no side-effects, but so far there was nothing he could find, "is Cordelia alright?"

At hearing Cordelia's name, Dawn silently mouthed if she was alright too.

Giles nodded his head while Wesley, back in LA, then asked, "Mr. Giles, I know this is going to be a strange question, but is Dawn in Sunnydale with you?"

"I'm staring at her right now," Giles said looking at Dawn. It was then he realized that no one bothered to let Angel and the others know about the older Dawn. 'Well, we didn't have a reason to tell them until, and unless, there was a need for them to know. And the older Dawn was saying she was going there to meet a friend she knew in the future. Maybe Angel and his team met her, and she's there in the Hyperion Hotel with them.' Giles then rubbed the back of his head before asking Wesley why it was that he needed to know.

"I see," Wesley said in surprise, looking over at Cordelia who was just as surprised when he continued, "she's right there with you." It was then that Giles asked why he needed to know about Dawn's whereabouts. "Mr. Giles, Cordelia just received a vision of someone who looked like an older Dawn with, as ridiculous as it sounds, she wears an…"

"Eye patch?" Giles said looking at the younger Dawn.

"Yes," Wesley said surprised, "Mr. Giles? How do you…."

"What was the vision about?" Giles interrupted as Dawn furrowed her eyebrows and Anya walked over to the counter upon hearing the worry in Giles' voice. Giles was thinking that Cordelia had seen the older Dawn getting into an accident, but he never expected what Wesley told him next.

"This woman killed a pregnant Darla, and then she killed Angel and Cordelia," Wesley said as Cordelia stood up from the couch and walked over to the front desk where Wesley was speaking on the phone.

"Wait, Darla? As in…." Giles shook his head. While the return of Darla was worrisome, especially when she was supposed to have been killed by Buffy and Angel years ago, Giles wanted to bring the conversation back to the older Dawn. His mind raced about why Dawn would kill Darla, and why she would even want to kill Angel and Cordelia, "Wesley, are you certain? About Dawn, I mean?"

"Yes," was the reply from Wesley, who continued, "Mr. Giles, what is…"

"Listen to me very carefully," Giles said with a frown wondering what the older Dawn was doing, and why she really needed to go to Los Angeles, "there's something you need to know."

As Wesley listened to the story Giles was telling him, his eyes went wider and wider in surprise. His mouth hung open while Cordelia stared at him when he whispered, "are you certain? Are you absolutely certain? Twilight? She's from the future? A future…" Cordelia was confused as she stared at Wesley who placed his free hand over his mouth, "dear Lord."

"What is it?" Cordelia asked, "what do you mean by the future? And Twilight? What's Twilight?"

"I… of course, I… I'll contact Angel and Gunn, they went to…." Wesley was stunned while his mind tried to process the new information, "she.. she's an older Dawn from the future? Are you certain?"

"What?" Cordelia asked, her disbelief showing on her face.

"I…. I understand…" Wesley said shaking his head after Giles answered his questions, "I'll contact Gunn and Angel. I'll have them bring her in to the Hyperion before she can do anything bad… I hope."

"I'll contact Buffy and the others," Giles said, "we'll leave for Los Angeles in about an hour. Do you know where she is?"

"We… we do," Wesley said, his expression mirroring his shock.

Giles was stunned, to say the least. He knew that Cordelia's visions were scarily accurate, and that the Powers would send her visions to prevent incidents that had the possibility to cause apocalypse level events. He heard from Angel of some of the disasters that were prevented through the use of her visions.

'Darla… Darla the vampire has returned, and she's pregnant? With who's child? And why is she and the child important?' Giles was ignoring Anya and Dawn's calls from across the counter as he thought, 'Dawn, why did Cordelia see you kill Darla? Why do you want to kill Angel and Cordelia? What do they have to do with the future you come from?' And then he had a terrible thought, 'what else have you done? What about Andrew and Jonathan? Have they really done what you said or… or… Damn it, Dawn.'

Giles then looked up after Anya gently shoved his shoulder, "Dawn, Anya."

"Giles?" Dawn asked, slight fear in her voice, "what's going on?"

"Dawn.. I… I mean the older Dawn…" Giles shook his head while mumbling to himself. He then looked up at the younger Dawn and ordered, "call Buffy." Giles then took a deep breath, "Call Buffy, Willow, Tara…. Everyone. We're leaving for LA."

"But…" Dawn said before being interrupted.

"We're going to LA," Giles said once again, "get ready."

**Outside an apartment complex, several minutes out of LA.**

Dawn stopped the Jeep in front of a dilapidated six storey apartment complex a few minutes away from a sign that welcomed travellers to LA. This was the closest place where she discovered one of her targets, Darla. And on the drive over from the parking complex, she was thinking back to her last day with Willow. They were in the tent, a soundproof shield surrounding them, and Willow had asked her a question she never expected.

"Marry me?" Willow had asked. Dawn remembered her reaction of surprise lasting for a few seconds before she had a smile on her face. A smile reflected on Willow as she rolled Dawn onto her back and lay on top of her.

"Yes, I want to marry you, Willow," Dawn remembered answering as she leaned back on the drivers seat and closed her eye. It was their last day together and Dawn wanted the two of them to have memories of happiness, something that was missing from their world. Dawn loved Willow, and the feeling was mutual; there was no question, and they were exceedingly happy with each other. But with the end of their time together coming soon, Willow and Dawn wanted one final moment of happiness.

No rings were shared. No other words were spoken. Willow pushed Dawn's hands over her head, her fingers interlaced between Dawn's fingers and leaned down to passionately kiss the brunette on her lips. Before long, the two of them celebrated their union in privacy before falling asleep… one holding the other tight. Until the last battle, Willow and Dawn were happy… truly happy. It was just the two of them as they slept, the world around them had vanished. And they were truly happy

And then, it was all over. Dawn had a mission. And as she stepped into the portal that would take her back through time, Dawn knew that one part of her mission was complete. She was stepping into the past… but she watched her lover, wife, and best friend die before she stepped through to the past and saved her younger self and her sister.

Dawn sighed as she opened her eye, while her two hands remained on the steering wheel, and a tear streamed down her cheek from her good eye. Taking her hands off the wheel, she grabbed the ignition key with one hand while the other hand wiped the tears away. She then opened the door, grabbed the dagger from the passenger seat, got out and stepped onto the curb while she put the sheathed dagger behind her, between her jeans and the small of her back while the blouse she was wearing covered the hilt. Closing the door to the driver's side, Dawn looked around and saw the streets were not as busy with only a few cars driving by, and four other cars parked on both sides of the street.

The one-eyed woman then looked at the entrance to the building in front of her while casting a small spell that would misguide anyone, including Tara, if they searched for her using a location spell. Dawn wasn't aware if Buffy called Angel to explain what was happening, but Dawn couldn't take the chance; if they wanted to search for her using a spell, they would get a different location

'Even if Buffy did call Angel, how will she explain who I am?' Dawn thought to herself as she walked up the stairs to the apartment entrance. She then whispered a spell that disabled the lock on the door and walked right into the building, 'that doesn't matter now'. Dawn reached the stairs and looked up the first flight of stairs, 'the location spell told me she's on the fifth floor, two floors to the right from the stairs.' Dawn started walking up the stairs while thinking, 'she should be pregnant now. Connor should be eight months along now.'

Dawn told herself there was no other choice, that Connor would herald the coming of Jasmine to Earth. She and Willow always suspected that her coming was one of the reasons why the First was able to come on strong in this realm, Jasmine's birth caused cracks in the thin layer of 'skin' that shielded this reality and dimension from others, 'it was Buffy's resurrection that was the main reason the First was able to manifest, but it was Jasmine's birth that cause the First to accelerate its plans against the Slayers and Potentials.'

'Connor's death is a way to…' Dawn stopped thinking as she walked, her expression now grim, 'I'm killing a child for something he… he hasn't done.' Reaching the floor where Darla's apartment was located, Dawn stopped and gripped the bannister tight until her knuckles were as white as a sheet, 'I have to do this.' Dawn rubbed the side of her head with her free hand, 'I have to do this. I can't take a risk… not with the future. Not with Buffy's life, not with…' Dawn thought of the redhead, 'not with Willow's life'. She brought the hand that was rubbing the side of her head and placed it in front of her, she looked at her ring finger, and recalled Willow's face… the Willow that she once knew, 'we agreed this needed to be done, Willow. I know I have to do this… I know it.' Dawn then walked towards Darla's room while reaching back under her blouse, grabbing the handle of the dagger, and then drawing it out of its sheath.

Upon reaching the door, Dawn took in a deep breath and put on a mask of resolve. She reached out, rolled her left hand into a fist while she tightened her hold on the handle of the dagger with her right hand. Dawn knocked hard on the door. She was ready to stab the dagger into Darla's abdomen, and then she was going to slit Darla's throat before she reminded herself, 'she's a vampire… she's a vampire again. Stabbing her won't work. It will kill the child, but not her.'

"Hold on!" a female voice yelled from the other side of the door, bringing Dawn out of her own thoughts.

'I can't take the risk,' Dawn thought upon hearing footsteps coming towards the door from inside the apartment. She still gripped her dagger tight, 'I have to use that spell… I can't the risk of stabbing her, and the baby still surviving.' Dawn looked on as the door opened, and her eyes was greeted by a confused, and very pregnant Darla.

"Yes?" Darla asked, furrowing her eyebrows as if trying to remember the one-eyed face looking back at her.

"What I do now," Dawn said looking into her confused eyes, "I do for the future, for all humanity."

"Who…"

"Ignis," Dawn said before she stumbled back and hit the wall while blood started to drip from her nose. She knew that using the spell was too soon after using it on Warren, but there was no other choice. She watched, while panting, as Darla vamped up. She was going to dash out towards Dawn, but before she could, she grabbed her abdomen. And she screamed out in anguish as she hunched forward and looked down at her extended belly. She morphed back to her human face as tears streamed down while she screamed. Dawn saw Darla go down to her knees before the former stumbled away from the door and towards the stairs.

Dawn hear the screams get louder as she reached the stairs. She felt her strength waning as she started to go down one step at a time. Dawn could already smell the burning stench of flesh coming down the stairs as several doors on the fourth floor opened and heads looked out into the hallway. One of the tenants yelled at the screams coming from the fifth floor, telling the person screaming to "shut the hell up".

And Dawn continued down the stairs, 'for the future. This is for the future. Everything I do, I do to ensure the hell I came from never comes to be.' Dawn then rushed out of the entrance, down the stairs, and to the Jeep. She got in, not wanting to be around when the stench got so bad that when someone had to go up to the fifth floor to check on the stench that wafted though the entire building; and all they would found was blackened ash on the floor. Dawn then turned the ignition, and drove away while still catching her breath. As she turned into a corner, she never saw the heavily tinted car that screeched to a stop in front of Darla's apartment building.

She never saw Gunn and Angel rush into the building. Instead, she parked the Jeep several blocks down and tuned off the ignition. She leaned back on her seat and closed her eye as tears streamed down her face. Dawn started to sob as she recalled the Connor she knew back in her old life- he was smart, he was brave, and although he was a pain towards Angel and the Scoobies in the beginning, he was a staunch ally in the battle against Twilight after the living dimension took over his father.

And now, Connor was dead by Dawn's own hand.

Dawn knew it needed to be done. But she still couldn't help but sob as she recalled Darla's pained expression. It was Connors birth that would set the events for Jasmine's coming, and it would be her coming that would shatter the veil between dimensions and realities leading to the First taking more control. That's what Dawn kept on repeating to herself.

But preventing that event meant Dawn had to sacrifice the good man she had once known.

As Dawn sobbed loudly with her arm over her eyes, her heart ached. And she knew this wasn't the end.

**The Higher Plains.**

Meanwhile, in the higher plains, a Power yelled out in rage. Her herald was dead… the once who was supposed to be her progenitor was dead. The man destined to be her human 'father' was dead. All that remained was her conduit. The Power known as Jasmine looked out towards Cordelia, her conduit- the vision she sent the blonde was sent too late. And now, Cordelia was in danger.

'She has to be willing to ascend,' Jasmine thought to herself as she hid away from the other Powers, 'I will send her another vision of her death. Perhaps she and her friends can prevent it long enough for me to find another progenitor.' She glared at Cordelia, 'and when I am born on Earth, they will know true peace. Even the First will not stop me.'

**Sunnydale, at that same time.**

It would be fifteen minutes later that the older Dawn would leave for the Hyperion Hotel to face Cordelia, all while Angel and Gunn were about to rush back to the hotel after giving statements to the officers who were called to the grisly scene on the fifth floor. In the meantime, while Giles readied himself on how to explain to the Scoobies about what was relayed to him by Wesley, a tear ripped open at a park, followed by a jet-black eyed redhead walking out and stepping on the hard grass covered ground.

The portal closed behind her while her eyes switched to the familiar green she was known for. Willow looked around, and sneered at the life present all around her. She could feel the magic of the Earth brushing against the bare skin on her arms and against her cheek, it was as if it was welcoming her. It was uncorrupted magic… and Willow hated it. She couldn't wait for her master to return to this dimension and corrupt everything around her.

But for now, she would make use of what she had.

At that exact time, the Wolf, the Ram, and the Hart felt a tremble in the dimensional plains; the witches at the Devon Coven looked at each other in worry before rushing to find a way to figure out why such powerful darkness appeared out of nowhere; and the young Willow and Tara dropped their pens at the same time – even though they were in different classes. The two Sunnydale witches could feel a sense of dread wash over them before they quickly rushed out of their respective classes and to the Magic Box. All over the world, everything magical felt the coming of the older Willow who was infused with a small part of Twilight. Even the Watcher's Council had called an emergency meeting when its seers screamed out that the end of all things had come.

Back in Sunnydale, the older Willow closed her eyes and sensed out the people she was searching for. She smiled as she sensed the location of the Scoobies, and the older version of Dawn- the latter would be dealt with after she completed the rest of her mission. She searched out anything that had a trace of the Wolf, Ram, and the Hart; she targeted the Senior Partners, she then targeted the Watcher's Council, the Devon Coven, and any others that may be a threat to Twilight.

Except for the Scoobies. Twilight wanted to play with them, and with the older Dawn.

The older Willow then held out her arms in front of her as red and black electrical charges arced between them. She smiled evilly as a deep red ball formed between her arms while gusts of wind started to pick up- the trees around her were now violently swaying about while the wind tore out the leaves from the trees. Willow spread her arms out to her sides, making the ball of dark magic- the magic infused into her by Twilight, and made it triple the size before she raised it high into the air.

With her eyes remaining shut, Willow spoke in an unknown tongue. The ball pulsed for a second before it broke apart into multiple shards and shot out in different directions.

'The Master's enemies are no more,' Willow thought as she watched the shards shoot out in multiple direction, 'all impediments to his rise will be destroyed now.' Willow then looked towards the south, 'and now, to retrieve the Scythe, and open the doorway to my master by activating the powers of all the Slayers.'

A grin formed on Willow's face as she stepped forward and a breach opened in front of her. Stepping through, she found herself teleported outside a small mission in Gilroy.

'This is the end of all things.'

TBC.


End file.
